BARBARA JO KIRSHBAUM

2004 BREAST CANCER 3•DAY

AZ Breast Cancer 3 Day--Oct. 22-24, 2004

1911 walkers

Just arrived home from AZ.  It was a great walk--my feet and body held up!  Actually it really was great weather for 3 days, and the skies and mountains were beautiful.  We walked from Rawhide Western Town to Tempe.  The first 2 days were 50 miles on my pedometer and that last day was 16.
My son David surprised on Fri morning.  He had flown in at 6 a.m. to walk with me.  It was his 3rd walk in a row (180 miles in 3 week ends--!)
Spent time with Robin on this walk, since Phoenix is her home.  She was the first person to ever walk all the 3Day events in 2000 and she was my inspiration to begin walking so many walks in a year.  She refers to herself as my tall daughter, since she is about 6 ft. tall.
After the walk we went out to dinner with people who are making a difference in the breast cancer cause:  Dick and Jan and Marlene and Ken who sell the breast cancer walker pin and donate so much to breast cancer; walker stalker Dan who cheered everyone for 3 weeks in a row; Moto Mike who was security in 4 events; Deb, who walked all 10 walks, and her fiancé Tom, who walked on Sun with her and my son David.  We had a great time and it was a nice end to the week end.  We had lots of laughs.

 

I want to mention talking and walking with Paul and meeting his wife Rebecca.  She just finished chemo and is beginning radiation and she walked about 5 miles a day.  Can you imagine the stamina to do that.  You will both be in my thoughts as I make my decisions for next year.  Go Rebecca and Paul.
We drove home today and trying settle in and back to our  regular routine.  When we drove up to the gates of our home, there were pink cups in the shape of breast cancer ribbons pushed into our chain link fence.  My tag line 'I walk because I can't walk away' was also written out in pink cups.
I started to cry and was just overwhelmed.  My daughters had done that last night.  I will leave those up for a long time!
Thank you all for reading this journal and for sharing this adventure with me.  I will be making my decision about next year in the next couple of months.

Remember to be doing breast exams and mammograms and reminding the other women in your life to do the same.


--
Barbara Jo
Team California
"I walk because I can't walk away"