Many of you know that this past weekend my Mom and I participated in the Tampa Bay Breast Cancer 3 Day. We walked 60 miles in three days with around 2000 other men and women to raise money for breast cancer research and prevention. The first day we walked was Friday and it was brutally hot. However that was not the part that was bad. The bad part was that around lunchtime most walkers - including us - got caught in a torrential downpour and our shoes and socks were soaked! This led to - you guessed it - tons of blisters. My feet were covered when we got back to camp that night. But we hardly had time to worry about the blisters because when we arrived at the camp we found out we were being relocated due to impending bad weather. Where were we being relocated to you ask? A parking garage! Yep, we spent Friday night in a tent on the seventh floor of a downtown parking garage. I bet that's not something many people get to experience! Anyway, the next morning we were transported back to camp to begin our second day of walking. Saturday was the hardest day for me personally because of the blisters, but with the help of the 3 Day crew and the many local citizens who came out to cheer, we made it through, and that night at our campsite the grassy ground actually felt like a luxury compared to our accommodations the night before. Sunday, the third and final day, was actually the best day. By then my blisters were feeling better plus the route was the prettiest. We walked through beautiful old neighborhoods and by the water. It made the day pass by much quicker and before we knew it we had reached mile 60! Seeing that sign was the most amazing thing - I couldn't believe we had done it. The whole weekend ended with closing ceremonies were all the walkers got to walk as a group listening to the cheers of friends and family. The most special part was when all the walkers who were breast cancer survivors walked in and all the other walkers took off one shoe and raised it in salute to them. Knowing what they had been through made the whole 3 day experience seem easy. All in all the people who walked the Tampa Bay 3 day raised a little over 5 million dollars which will stay right here int the local area to help the fight against breast cancer. It was an amazing event to be a part of and I would encourage each one of you, men and women alike, to consider being a part of it in a city near you at some point. Thank you so much to all the people who sponsered me: Frank and Andrea Shealy, Wes Shealy, Adam and Andrea McKee, Bobby and Priscilla Deets, Babby and Jessie Thomasson, and my Mom's friends David and Carolyn. We couldn't have done it without you!
Sleeping in a field of thousands of hot pink tents was pretty cool!
Wes and Noah came to cheer us on Sunday morning.
My Mom and me right after we finished the walk - tired but happy.
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