my knee-jerk reaction was to stop supporting the komen foundation, but then i worry my doing so, for political reasons, makes me no different from what i am protesting against.  allowing politics to come between me and my hating of cancer is not the answer.

yet that still doesn’t sit quite right with me.  i’ve raised quite a bit of money (over $7,000 over the past three 3-day walks) for the komen foundation and i don’t know that i want to continue raising money for them after this.  it feels tainted somehow.

i still need to think about what i am going to do.  but one thought i have had is switching to the 2-day avon breast cancer walk.  they also raise a lot of money to fight breast cancer, but none of it goes through the komen foundation.

like i said, i still am not sure what my next move will be.  but i am sure of two things:  i hate cancer, and

i don’t believe those two things are mutually exclusive.

when i got this email in my inbox a few days ago i decided it was time to step up and actually do what i’d been saying i was going to do since august…

sign up for the 2012 bc3d!!

i’m in – and i’m ready to begin another year’s cancer-hating journey!!  so watch your back breast cancer – team breast intentions is totally gunning for you!

if you are so moved and want to get an early start on cancer-hating with me please click here to go to my personal page and make a donation!

on day three we were not messing around.  we were going to walk the entire day. 

the route for day three was the same as both the other times i've walked.  so as hard as day three was, it was also rather comforting, like walking with an old friend.  it was helpful to recognize places along the walk and to know what was coming around the bend.  there were also many fun opportunities for repeat photo-ops, so i hope you'll forgive me for a few trips down bc3d memory lane.

on the last day everyone is queued up and ready to get on the trail asap… i've always had to stand in a line to leave camp on day three.

fun with shaddows while we wait (2010) – meghan and i are the pair just to the right of the tree.

since everyone is queued up to leave camp things are pretty bunched up at the start of day three – lots of passing and being passed and very crowded pit stops.  things eventually thin out a bit though…

day three is always the most visited by cheering crouds.  there are impromput cheering stations all along the route.  people spend the entire day following the walkers, cheering us on.

here we have the bikers who follow the route all weekend long off their bikes posing for pictures with the walkers.

meghan and i opted for a hovermale instead of standing in line to pose with the bikers.

we were also happy to find the big pink bunny again:

it's out every year (2008) and is meghan's "favorite" thing to be coorcered into posing next to it.

another staple of every twin cities three-day is jody's couch.  jody was a good friend of a couple (i don't know their names) and she died of breast cancer.  this pink couch was her most comfortable and favorite place to rest when she was sick.  every year the wife walks in the tree day and her husband takes jody's couch along the route and the walkers sit on it and take their pictures.  here's 2011:

and here's 2010 and 2008.

i mentioned the people who follow the route along all day and cheer us on… well these two ladies were our favorites from day three:

i think it's clear why.  they were totally boob-city-awesome!!

as we got closer and closer to the last cheering station i started to keep my eye's peeled for some very special cheering friends…

these aren't them… but it always makes me laugh when the cheerleaders come out and cheer us on.

closer and closer to the capitol… as soon as we were done with lunch (7-ish miles still to go) we started to get glimpses of the capitol every now and again.

here we are about three miles out.  (the capitol is the white dome to the far right on the horizon.  looks a lot farther than three mere miles doesn't it?  we thought so too.)

but then we spied our speical cheering section!!

hooray for brian and lily!!  they were just the pick-me-up we needed towards the end of a long day.  thank you so much for coming early to cheer us along the route!!

as we walked our way into downtown st. paul, and the final mile, we passed a spot i remembered from last year (2010), so we had to stop and pose:

i'm not sure why, but i really stiffened up along the last mile, it seemed to go on and on forever…

but really, all good things must end, and soon we were crossing the last bridge and the end was in sight:

closer…. and closer…..

and then we were there!!

and there were so many people cheering… and so much joy… there is no way to stop yourself from smiling the hugest of smiles when you're finishing the 3-day.  it's a feeling like no other.

once we were done, we met up with brian and lily (again skipping the closing ceremonies), and drove back home to mankato.  

we celebrated our accomplishment with a bottle of malbec sent from our much missed teammate laura and a viewing of home alone.  (because that's how we roll.)

and thus ends the 2011 twin cities breast cancer three-day.  i want to say a huge and public thank you to my teammate and sister meghan – she is a 60 mile walking superstar – and i couldn't have been happier to have shared this experience with her!  love you meg!!!  (and i'll see you next year!!!)  (and you too laura.)

we woke up stiff and sore at 5am on day two.  after a little bit of moving around most of our muscles had loosened up (i never could shake the tightness in the back of my left knee though) but i at least was not moving quite as quickly as the previous day.  hence the first half of the day's theme: slow and steady.

day two's route was the exact same as last year's except that we walked it in reverse, so we began our morning along the gateway trail.

the morning seemed to just fly by – we walked the first 8 miles without much of a thought – time really does fly when you're having fun!  (and gorgeous scenery doesn't hurt either.)

at one point we were walking past another gorgeous lake, it was clam and clear as glass and i spied two swans floating by a dock, i said, "oooooh meghan look!  swans!!"  and meghan burst out laughing and said, "those are plastic swans."

so that made for a nice running joke for the rest of the walk – everytime we saw lawn ornament animals we would say, "oooooh bunnies!!"  or "ooooooh bears!!"

so we continued to walk and walk and walk and those 8mi that flew by in the morning seemed like a dream… my stride was getting shorter and stiffer and i had a few blisters on the bottom of my right foot that were yelling at me.

but there were some distractions:  like these awesome old cars wearing bras:

but when i reached the pit stop at mile marker 17 even cars with bras couldn't distract me from the fact that i was fading fast and there were still 6 miles to go.  i worried that if i pushed through and finished the day that i would not be able to do the entire full day on sunday… after much internal debate (and i'm still not certain i made the right call) i decided to take the bus back to camp and the live to fight another day was added to the day's theme.

meghan was still feeling good enough to keep walking and she walked the last 6 miles by herself.  yay for meghan!!  she is the day two superstar!!!

the busses that take walkers back to camp are called the sag busses (which stands for support and gear).  so i was sagged back to camp, and upon arrival they passed out legacy pins to everyone on the bus that said "sagged and proud."  well, i was sagged, but i don't know that i was terribly proud of it… but i put it on my lanyard anyway, it seemed to be the honest thing to do.

at least it's a cute little bus.

back at camp i showered and then got my blisters lanced in the medical tent (next year i am totally remembering to pack my own blister lancing supplies), met back up with meghan, ate dinner, and crashed in our little pink tent for the night.  

and thus ends day two.

both meghan and i let our training get sidlined by the massive heatwave that covered most of the country in july… so we were a little worried as we set out on this three-day adventure.  hence the first day's theme – fake it to make it.

brian drove us up to the cities thursday night, since opening ceremonies started at 6:30am.  our hotel was convientely located across the street from the site.

after posing for our traditional "opening ceremonies" photo:

we went and queued up to enter the opening ceremonies pen, because as we learned last year (when we were in the back of the pen) the first in are the first out!  

they play "inspiring music" (i put this in quotes because i guess it depends on how inspiring you find the black eyed peas…) and have beach balls floating around, people are snapping pictures, there's anticipation in the air!

the opening ceremonies were as inspiring and beautiful as they always are.

and then they opened the pen-gates and we filed out to begin our three-day journey.

there are so many people in the crouds cheering us all on – it really is amazing!

(and yes, there are lots of people each year who walk in tutu's.)

right before lunch we walked through the walker art museum's sculpture garden and past minneapolis' iconic cherry on a spoon.

here we are cheesing it up as we enter the lunch site.  

this was my favorite sign they had at lunch time.  ah, root vegetable themed cancer-hating puns… what could be better?

after lunch we walked through downtown minneapolis, which was crowded with workers out to lunch.  it made for good people watching, but for very slow progress.  eventually we made it out of the hustle and bustle of downtown and to the scenic calm of the mill ruins park.

yay meghan!!

yay melissa!  (please note how good i am at "fake it to make it."  that may be my most forced smile ever.)

here's one of the many pit stops and grab and goes along the route.  they're always decked out in fun breast cancer related themes.  this one was all bras.  

we walked and walked and walked some more….

we came to a big bridge…

which crossed the mighty mississippi.

then we walked some more…. and i stoped taking pictures because i was focusing on putting one foot infront of the other.  the last two miles of day one may have been the hardest two miles of the enire weekend.  

but we made it!  yay!!  boarded the bus and headed back for camp.

and now we get a story for which there are no pictures… on the (very bumpy and jerky) bus ride back to camp i got hit with some terrible motion sickness (as i am known to do).  and when we got back to camp i was dizzy and not right at all.  this freaked everyone out, they were worried i was dehydrated (i was not, i had been drinking and peeing at every pit stop like a good little walker).  yet i was very dizzy and nautious, so they sent me up to medical in a gator where i was throuroughly and lovingly checked over by the medics.  once i was feeling back to normal they cleared me to leave.

so we left and went to get our gear and set up our tent.  now i must add that each previous year i've done the walk there have been whispers and rumors about children (girlscouts, boyscouts… the details vary, but the theme is the same) who set up your tent.  well i had heard the rumors but had never been lucky enough to meet these "tent elves."

until this year!

hooray for the highschool hockey boys who carried our gear and the camp angles who set up our tent!  what a wonderful surprise!

and speaking of surprises – thank you susan for my chocolate treat!  it was delicous indeed!!

so once back at camp, we ate dinner, showered, and went to bed.

seriously.  i think we were in bed by 7:30pm.

and thus ends day one.

the twenty-eleven breast cancer three-day is officially over!!

here's the short stats:  i walked 54 out of 60 miles and my rockstar sister meghan walked the entire 60!!  (and what's even better – we're already talking about next year.)

as usual i'll sort through the rest of my pictures in the days to come, and will put up more detailed posts for each day.  but i wanted to get this up both as a celebration and a HUGE thank you to everyone who supported me on my journey this year – i couldn't have done it without YOU!!!!!

a gorgeous water bottle cozy both designed and knit by the amazing kathy over at work in progress.  kathy is not only a knitter she is a marathon runner and her training has served as inspiration to me while i was training for the walk.

and since she's a runner she really knows what is needed on a water bottle cover for both runners and walkers – a handle!  and what makes it even better is it fits perfectly on the bottle i keep gatorade in.  yay!!

 i'm so touched by kathy's thoughtfulness.  i'm glad i get to take a piece of her with me on my walk.  every time i take a drink of gatorade i'll think of kathy, and of all of you who are cheering me on.

thank you kathy!  it really was perfect timing and the perfect gift!!

the weather will be slightly cooler (hooray!) with the potential for more percipitation:

although at only 30% chance, we'll just cross our fingers and enjoy the cooler temps!

if you don't know claire, or even if you do, take a moment to check out her flickr photostream, she is truly a gifted photographer.

she is offering two of each five photos as 10×10 prints.

they're listed for sale over at the cancer-hating etsy shop, please go check them out if you're interested.  

it's not often you can purchase such fabulous art for such a fabulous cause!

and a huge huge cancer-hating thank you goes out to claire!  thank you claire, you are wonderful beyond words – i love you!!

congratulations kathy!!  

a big thank you to everyone who participated!!  we raised a whopping $95 for cancer-hating!!

and another speical thank you to the lovely maya, without your generosity this wouldn't have been possible!