The 3day is over.
My god, it’s hard to write about it. There’s just so much, and it’s so emotional. It was incredible. I was exhausted. I was elated. I was heartbroken. I was thrilled. Most of all, I’m proud to have been part of such an amazing team. I think the pictures tell it best; I wish I had more, but sometimes it was far too much expenditure of energy to pull out the camera. The thing that most hit home this time around was 1) how incredibly awesome it is to have a good team, 2) how amazing my friends are, and 3) how frustrating it is that, after all the training and fundraising and time you’ve committed for an entire year, whether you make it the whole way through is determined by luck. Half my team was waylaid by horrific blisters, illness, and even a stress fracture. It was brutal. I felt kind of punched-in-the-gut when I was told I needed to stop crying 20 minutes after leaving camp on the final day. I was asked, “Would she be crying over you if you couldn’t walk?” Um, yeah. Yeah, she would. That’s how important this is to us, and how important it is to stick together. I’m really, really happy that our whole team got to cross the finish line together. Some of us were barely able to walk, but we did it. And we’ll be back again next year. I think the biggest thing that kept us going was the vast amount of support we had from our friends along the way. I knew I’d see some of them at cheering stations occasionally, but I was floored by Cindi, Kaye, Bill, Sean, and Christine coming out to opening ceremonies before it was even light out Friday morning. We rounded the curve leaving the starting line, and there they were with a giant banner. I cried my way through the beginning of the walk, just like I did at the end. There were people greeting us at five cheering stations, Stephanie visited at camp, I had supportive voice mails and text messages every time I turned on my phone, and Wendy and I both had a big stack of letters and cards awaiting us at camp. We spent a huge amount of time on the walk discussing just how awesome our friends are. I can’t imagine anything better than that. I was kind of hobbling yesterday morning, but walking to get lunch helped stretch my legs out a little. I’m pretty stiff and the muscles in my lower legs feel like they’re made of granite, but it was only painful once I started up the stairs to the skyway. Waiting for my sandwich, I started stretching out of habit, because it’s what we do while we’re waiting in line for anything at the 3day. While I was standing there with my legs crossed and my hip jutted out to the side in a surely attractive manner, I recognized the girl next to me. She had a temporary tattoo from a pit stop on her bicep. I asked her if she had been at the 3day this weekend, too. She said, “Yeah, and you look like you’re in a lot better shape than I am right now!” It’s true. I feel great. And therefore, I’d like to give a shout-out to my own body. Not just for being highly forgiving of the many abuses it was subjected to this weekend, and for getting me through sixty miles, but also for waiting until I got home Sunday night to start my period. WHEW. Thank you again to everyone who supported us on this long journey to the 3day. I couldn’t have done it without you.Jenni