Throughout the fairgrounds they had these large glowing globes with inspirational sayings on them. There was a volunteer at each one giving out stickers with the sayings printed on them.
Marsha stretching to get ready to walk the 21.5 miles of the day 1 course.
The stage for the opening ceremonies.
Loved the back of this team's shirt!
Here I am ready to start walking.
This was the survivor's circle with the flags that represent the characteristics of the the walkers.
Here are a group of survivors in the circle during the opening ceremony. The woman in the middle in the sleeveless shirt was the top fundraiser the the Twin Cities' walk. She, by herself, raised over $15,000.
This is in the parking lot as we left the fair grounds. The women in this red beetle called herself the "walker stalker". She drove along our route all day, all 3 days of the walk and encouraged us all.
Another really great team shirt.
This is cowboy Mike. His wife does the walk. You can't tell from this picture, but cowboy Mike is wearing a pink leopard skin cowboy hat. He also was all along our route, cheering us on every day.
If you look to the left in the a little back you can see the volunteers cheering us as we approach one of the pit stops of the day. They were all wearing costumes and each pit stop throughout the day had a theme.
It's hard to see in this picture but all along the river behind these walkers was a line of even more walkers. We stretched for miles!
Me and Marsha on Jody's couch. If you'd like to read the story of Jody's couch it's here: http://www.rowekamp.com/couch.htm
This is at camp at the end of Day 1. This is the tent where everyone ate dinner and breakfast.
This is looking up toward the front of camp. The large tent to the left was the med tent. The string of tents to the right had vendors and a place to hangout while at camp. I spent one evening playing BINGO in the New Balance tent.
This is the sea of pink tents. The walkers are given a pink 2-person tent to spend the night in on Friday and Saturday night. Marsha didn't want to camp so she went back to her sisters each night. So I had a tent to myself.
This is the beginning on day 2. It was a lovely trail but my blisters were screaming at me for completing all 21.5 miles on day 1. As soon as I saw a sweep van I hitched a ride to the first pit stop where I met Marsha for the day.
This is me yelling at Marsha for taking my picture while the wonderful volunteer medic lanced and bandaged my blisters. Notice how she's patting my leg and trying to get me to stop squirming while I yell at Marsha!
This is an example of the lines for the porta-potty at the pit stops.
A fire station along the route extends their ladder and shows their support for the walkers.
Walking into the next pit stop. We were greeted my some local cheerleaders, cheering us on.
Another pit stop, another sea of porta-potties.
I like this shirt too. Don't know if you can read it well. It said "2 walkers 4 knockers."
Marsha with mullet pig guy. He was one of many of the safety crew along the route that made sure we crossed busy intersections safely.
My feet at lunch day 2.
This was a van driven by one of the event staff parked at the pit stop after lunch.
As you can see this is pit stop 4. The sign says "Moody Boobs." All the crew at the stop were dressed in a 70's theme that day. These are all volunteer crew. They come up with the themes for their pit stops on their own, make all the decorations and have to set-up and take down their pit stops for each of the 3 days.
A close-up of the beverage tent at moody boobs. Notice the bras hanging from the tent. The volunteers collect and decorate these bras. On day 2 I took the bus back to camp at this pit stop. My blisters where very painful so I visited the med tent again once I got back to camp. I estimated I did about 10 miles of the 22.7 miles of day 2. But if I hadn't gone back to camp I wouldn't have been able to walk day 3.
This is the morning of day 3. This is the line to get out of camp to start the walk for the morning. We got in line around 7:00am and it was about 7:18 by the time we got on the trail.
The flags lining the way as we left camp on day 3.
Boob balloons at a cheering station.
Many teams dressed up for the walk, especially for day 3.
Some more stalkers. These guys' wives were walking. The rode their motorcycles along the route all 3 days honking and cheering for all the walkers. The second guy from the left is wearing a bra as a hat.
I sign along the way in memory of a loved one lost. I walk so that no one has to ever make a sign like this again.
Day three the Olympic pit stop had a Beijing flair.
Bras hung in the trees along the trail.
This is the view of St Paul with about 2.5 miles left to go on day three. Our destination is the state capital in the distance.
We made it! This is the holding area in front of the capital. We stayed here until the beginning of the closing ceremonies. The last 2 miles were really hard and I didn't think I could make it. The crew and lots of cheering supporters lined the last quarter mile of the walk. It was such an emotional journey that last few hundred yards. I was overcome with that fact that I had actually made it, every step of the 17.3 mile course of day 3.
This is the sea of walkers lining up to march in to the closing ceremonies.
Here we are in the midst of the closing ceremonies as the volunteer crew of over 580 enter. The walkers were on the very outside, then the crew and finally the survivors (crew & walkers) in the middle.
Marsha holding up her shoe in honor of the survivors as they entered the closing ceremonies.
A view of the stage with the capital in the background.
The survivors entering the survival circle.
Holding hands in victory.The 3000 walkers who participated in the Twin Cities 2008 walk raised over $7.3 million dollars to help in the fight against breast cancer. Marsha and I have already signed-up to walk again in 2009. Please visit my participant page to learn more about the walk:
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