Day 1 - Friday

We woke up this morning at o'dark hundred, as we usually do on Day 1 of event, and headed over to get Gwyn and Wendy before heading to opening ceremonies (with a much needed stop at Starbucks, of course). Opening ceremonies was to take place in the parking lot of a pretty huge mall called Colorado Mills. I wasn't too worried about the exact location in the parking lot because, well, with all those people, it'll be easy to find! So you can imagine my concern on turning into the main gate and not seeing a single gear truck, stage, walker, car, anything. There were, however, the motorcycle guys there pointing us in the right direction (phew, we weren't actually lost!). When we finally came up on the gear trucks and opening ceremony location I realized how much smaller this walk was really going to be. Now, don't get me wrong, I recognize that San Diego holds the largest walk (with approximately 4500 walkers) so I was expecting something smaller, but this beat those expectations by a mile. All totalled, this walk has 700 walkers. This had it's good and bad which I'll get to as I take you through my day.

So, there we were standing right in front of the stage waiting for the ceremonies to start (by this point our 4th team mate Sue had joined us). The familiarity returned the second the opening ceremonies started. First was the group stretch and then the flags and then the national spokesperson who always makes us cry. It was just as emotional and moving as it always is and we all couldn't wait to get started. It took about 5 minutes to get out on the route (one of the good parts of being so small!). Gwyn, who ended up not being able to walk, and Jason went ahead to figure out where the cheering stations were and Sue, Wendy and I started our journey. I wish I could tell you were we went but the truth is I have absolutely no idea. There were a lot of walking paths and mountain views, but all I can tell you is that they started in Lakewood and ended up in Littleton.

The overall feel of the walk here is quite different. Those of you who have seen the San Diego one know that there are people EVERYWHERE. From the thousands of walkers you can see for miles to the equally thousands of supporters who come out to give out candy and play music, you are surrounded by people all the time. Not so here (the one not-so-good thing about being so small). However, it was pretty quiet and peaceful for most of the walk. Kinda fitting with the surroundings.

The first cheering station - mile 10.2 - was at about 10:45 am. Jason and Gwyn were there, of course, but we were also surprised by seeing Jason's mom and stepdad (Shari and Tim) there!! That was really cool... Shari even decided to walk with us for the mile between the cheering station and lunch. She and Sue hadn't seen each other in decades and they seemed to be having quite the fun time catching up.

Lunch - mile 11.3 - was the same grilled chicken breast sandwich that it always is but we were definitely thankful for the rest. Over all we felt fine, but taking off our shoes just felt so good! Sue decided to head back to camp after lunch as she hadn't been feeling well and had already walked longer than she thought she would and so I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with Wendy, just the two of us. We had never really hung out like that before but we soon found ourselves in the midst of wonderful conversations and I am really very thankful to have had the time with her.

At the second cheering station - mile 14.7 - we again met up with Jason and Gwyn, shortly after our arrival we were joined by Matt and the twins. Wendy and I then realized that we were only 6 miles to the end of the day and it was only 2:30 pm (another benefit of being so small). We took our time for the rest of the walk, making sure to stop, pee, eat and drink - that is the 3-Day mantra after all - and walked into camp around 5. Camp is equally as tiny but it has exactly the same things as the camp in San Diego... with one quite formidable exception. Right behind the 3-Day gear store, nestled discretely into the park, is the Columbine Memorial. I took pictures but I think I'll try again tomorrow when there's more light.

Dinner was the usual spaghetti and meat sauce with garlic bread and we pretty much just sat there for a while. The national spokesperson lady was back on the stage MCing the evening's entertainment and we completely forgot that this was the same person who just this morning made us all cry! She was hilarious!!! Either that or we were all so delirious that we thought she was hilarious. Once they started the 3-Day Karaoke, it was time to go.

Oh and my feet... so far so good! Only a small number of hot spots! I'm sure my baby toe is still destined for blisterdom but for now I'm doing great.

20.7 miles down!

I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow,
Cara