The Weekend Follow-up

Well, just thought I'd fill you in dear readers on what an amazing weekend we had in Boston! After checking in at the Park Plaza Boston we headed over to the castle to check out the happenings at Avon Walk Opening Eve. Of course, we had to purchase a new pink hat for me to wear on Sunday and Tony picked up his award (medal ribbon) for being a top fundraiser! Then we headed to the North End to meet Jo, Ruey and Courtney for dinner at Damiano's. Wow, it was a fabulous dinner. (I'm hungry as I write this so I'll obsess about it a bit.) The restaurant serves small plates, tapas style if you will, and we shared so much food. Their mushroom risotto & risotto with peas and prosciutto and their eggplant were delicious along with everything else we ordered. I digress...more about food another time.

Saturday we were up at 4 a.m. to pack up and head over to UMass Boston by 5:30 to eat breakfast. The day was beautiful, sunny, warm and overall gorgeous. We were welcomed by the staff and stretched a bit and then at 7:00 a.m. right on the dot we left the campus for our long walk of 26.2 miles to the Wellness Village at the beautiful campus at Reebok Headquarters in Canton. We walked through some beautiful areas of Boston and surrounding towns and tried to keep each other's spirits up as we continued on our journey. By the end of day 1, we were exhausted, with blisters - some of us worse than others and wondered how we would make it back another 13.1 miles on day 2. Emotions were high reaching our goal at end of day on Saturday - we couldn't believe we walked a marathon. It took us all day till about 5:45 p.m. and we were exhausted!


The event was so well organized. The routes were well marked and at every major crossing there was the motor crew. Guys and a gal on motorcycles who would follow the route to make sure we crossed safely. There were the sweep vans for those that needed medical attention and couldn't walk any further. Also, there were many cheering stations and while passing through beautiful neighborhoods kids set up lemonade and iced tea stands. It was unbelievable how much support was out there. The cheering and encouragement to keep going was a big help, especially at end of day on Saturday and all day on Sunday as it was a really rainy cloudy day. There were rest stops and quick stops all loaded with food, water, gatorade and much appreciated medical staff.

Jo's son Garrett was working on a crew at the wellness village and we were so happy to see him! He took great care of us - we felt pretty special - as he retrieved our duffel bags and set up our tents for us!! We are forever grateful to him for making things easier for us. Thank you Garrett!

Saturday night we (3 girls) took a much needed yoga class, then ate and showered. Yep, they had showers in a truck...with hot water, a lot of hot water. It was great. Then lights out at 10 and then the wind picked up and the rains came. It was a tough nights sleep but no matter, it was just one night.


Sunday, we were up and out by 8 a.m. to continue our journey back to UMass Boston. With sore feet we finished our mission at 2:15 p.m. arriving through the arched finish line, happy to have completed our first Avon Walk. We met some wonderful people all with a common goal, raising money for awareness, research and a cure to end breast cancer. There were 2500 walkers and collectively we raised $5.6 million dollars for the Boston area! Thank you to my cousin Stephanie and to my friend Lesa for the inspiration to get involved and try and make a difference. And a big thank you to Tony, Jo and Ruey for making this journey with me - I couldn't have done it without you. I wouldn't have laughed as much, sang as much, walked as much or cried as much (ok, maybe that one) without all of you. It was a great weekend!