Schrempp Walking Update #2 – March 2002
As of February 23rd, Bob and I have walked 456 miles. During our vacation last week, in Napa, we walked two 10 mile days, and so far this weekend, we have walked 12. Slowly but surely, we are building up our miles and stamina. I am still trying to find the right shoes for my feet. The last ones were too wide, so this next pair is longer but skinnier. Bob seems have found the right shoe for him.
We are trying to find events to spice up our walks. So, a couple of weekends ago, Bob and I walked in the Cal Poly Triathlon Club's 10k Fund Raiser. We had a personal record (PR) of just under 2 hours. The Club had sweepers on bikes who rode with the last runners (okay, in our case walkers). We were lucky to have Clayton as our sweeper. He rode with us the entire way, and we had a great time talking with him. He kept us walking at a record speed. We enjoyed this 10k so much that we will be walking in a ½ marathon in April and the San Francisco Bay to Breakers in May. In fact, we are going to try walking a marathon sometime next year. This way we will have a new goal to work towards when the Avon 3-day walk is over.
While walking the Poly Canyon loop at Cal Poly (this is an 8 mile loop in the hills), Bob and I made up a song to the music of “We are Family”. It goes like this: "We are athletes/ All the Avon walkers and me/ We are athletes/ Come on everybody, lets WALK". Okay, it is not the most ingenious song in the world, but it picks us up when we need a lift. We have decided that with all the miles we are putting in that we are athletes.
I want to tell
you all a story that shows how far we have come with our training. We started
training in August 2001 and signed up for a 5k the first weekend in September.
At this point in our walking, we were at 3 or 4 miles on the weekends, so the 5k
(3 miles) was not toooooo scary. We were going to walk the Cambria Pinerodeo
Race. It starts at the High School and continues through the downtown area and
then back to the high school. I only told Bob that this was a 5k. I never told
him it was a 5k race and that most people would be running. As we pulled into
the parking lot, Bob looks at the athletes prepping for the event and asks in a
very nervous voice, “Is this a run or walk?” I tell him that it is a run, but
it will not be a problem if we walk. We told the race coordinators that we
would take about an hour to walk the course, and they said that was great with
them. As the gun rang out, we started walking. We were excited to see other
walkers, but they soon put a big separation between us. It was a hard walk. We
were walking faster than normal and were getting tired. In the end, Bob and I
walked across the finish line last, as the crowd cheered us on. They were
holding the closing ceremonies until all the contestants were in. There were
awarding medals for each age group. Of course, I am thinking that since I came
in dead last, I would not get a medal. So, I am just looking around not really
paying attention. Then Bob tags my shoulder and says that they are calling my
name. Since I was 29, I was
part of the women 20-29 year olds. It turned out that there were only three of
us in this age group. So I got a medal for third place, last across the finish
line but third. We do not walk just three miles any more. Even our Tuesday and
Thursday evening walks are up to 4 miles. Boy have we come a long way.
As of the 23rd, my donations are at $3,530. I want to thank everyone for all your support. Your donations are being used right now to help with the fight against breast cancer. All donations are immediately used for breast cancer awareness and research. If you have any questions or want to give us words of support, give us a call at 805-438-5437 or email us at kschrempp@alumni.calpoly.edu or bschrempp@alumni.calpoly.edu.
Thanks you tons,
Katie and Bob
PS - Check out Katie's medal in the picture.