Schrempp Walking Update #5 – Post Walk

            I am ALIVE!!!  This has been an amazing year.  Last August 1st, Bob and I started our training with 3 mile walks.  We would say that it seemed so far.  Were we going to be able to get to 20 miles by the time of the Walk?  We just believed in ourselves and kept walking, adding mileage each week.  We made it through the pulled toe ligament, the bruised knee and just plain exhaustion.  We just continued to walk.  Before I knew it, we were walking 14, 16, and 18 mile days.  Then it was the 45 miles in three days weekend.  I knew when I finished that weekend and was still able to walk that I would be able to make it through the 60 miles.  It would not be easy, but I would make it.

            We left for the Bay Area on Wednesday, July 10th in record breaking heat.  We stopped in Morgan Hill to spend the night with our friends the Lee’s, it was 104 at their house.  I told Bob that I did not know what I was going to do in this heat.  I had been training in Atascadero, so I was used to walking in 90+ degree weather.  I was still getting a little nervous about 100+ degrees.  I just kept telling myself that it had to cool down.  Mother Nature was listening, and on Thursday, it was 95 and 85 on Friday. 

            Day Zero was on Thursday at the Santa Clara Convention Center.  We decided to stay at the Westin Hotel (they are connected to the Convention Center), so we would not have to travel and worry about parking on Friday morning.  Since Mom was on Crew, she had to check-in to the walk during the morning while my check-in was that afternoon.  The thing I learned at Day Zero is that my feet are not used to standing; it took three hours to register and do all the checking stuff.  My feet really started to ache because they were used to moving and walking not standing in line.

            Day One – 18+ miles, 6:00 am: We dropped off our luggage at the Gear Trucks and headed over to the Convention Center for the beginning of the Opening Ceremonies.  We had 4, 400 walkers and netted over $7 million just in the San Francisco Avon Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk.  It was amazing to see that many people all pumped up like I was.  You could feel the adrenaline in the air; everyone was just so excited to get started.  The only bummer was getting everyone out of the Convention Center.  It took about an hour and a half to get everyone out and walking, so we had to do a lot of standing.  The first walkers started at 8 am, and there was still a lot of rush hour traffic.  Again, my feet were not used to this standing.  I happened to be one of the last 1000 walkers to actually get out of the Convention Center.  Since they were playing music to keep us pumped up, I was dancing away and meeting lots of other walkers.  At one point, Bob came back in looking for me because he thought that he missed me.  Day One was from the Santa Clara Convention Center to Bay Meadows Race Track in San Mateo.  Most of the walking during this day was along major streets as we made our way to San Mateo. 

One fun part of the walk was the San Jose Police Department Bicycle Squad.  About twenty police officers volunteered their weekend, so they rode with us all three days.  They spent the day riding up and down the line of walkers making sure that we were okay.  If a big group of walkers was delayed at an intersection, the SJPD would stop all traffic and we would get to cross diagonally.  It was such a blast.  We also had a motorcycle club that would make sure that cars were paying attention to us at the intersections that the SJPD were not at.  They had orange flags and would step out into the crosswalks on the green lights, so cars would not try to turn or get a jump-start on a green light. 

            I have never seen so many port-a-potties.  Pallotta TeamWorks (the organizing group) did a great job with all their pit stops.  We had pit stops about every two miles along the whole route.  There was always plenty of food and liquid to get you through the day.  Lunch that first day was at mile 14+.  When Bob and I trained, we would stop at mile 10 for lunch at the Atascadero Hoffbrau.  This was a new challenge for me.  I had to just tell myself that I would make it the extra 4 miles to lunch.  I made it there right around 3 o’clock.   Bob was waiting for me to make sure that I was doing okay.  It turned out that since I did not make it out of lunch by 4pm, I was going to be bussed.  For everyone who made it out of lunch by 4, they walked a1/2 - mile to a train station and rode the train for four stops to the San Carlos Station.  I was finished with lunch after 4 and was bused to the San Carlos Train Station and walked from there to Bay Meadows.

            It is time to talk about my support team.  Mom and Bob were totally amazing.  Bob was there for me during the day and Mom at night.  Bob showed up at breakfast each day to see me off, hit all the major pit stops, lunch and dinner and then headed off for the evening.  It was so wonderful to see his smiling face as I walked into a stop.  He would check my water while I was in line for the bathrooms, see if I needed anything to eat, help me with my stretches and then send me on my way.  I also loved hearing him honk as he left.  Mom was Crewing, so she got our luggage together, pitched tents, put out sleeping bags if she had time and was there with a smiling face as I walked into camp and found her at Camp Services (where she worked in the afternoon/evenings).  My walk would have been so much harder if I did not have the two of them backing me up.  As Bob says, “All professional athletes have great support teams.”  They were the best!

            Mom had two jobs for her Crewing Assignment.  She was the navigator for a Gear and Luggage Truck during the day.  She, Matt (the driver) and Lin (Matt’s assistant) had a great time working together.  Mom would make sure that nothing was behind Matt when he was backing up, that he would not hit anything on her side when they were turning, and then navigate to the new camp.  Then during the afternoon and evenings, she sold the Avon pink ribbon products (lipsticks, teddy bears, Pink ribbon pens and pins).  I even got to help sell products on the night of Day Two.  We had such a good time together. 

            All the crew members were awesome.  They put in long days, moved everything, set-up route signs, cooked, healed the injured, put up and staffed pit stops and lunches…  There were only 380 crewmembers compared to the 4400 walkers.  They were down 1/3 of the number of crew from the year before and had to work twice as hard because of this.  For some reason, Pallotta TeamWorks stopped the registration for the Crewmembers, but kept adding Walkers.  This event would not have happened without this amazing group of people.

            There was a wonderful group of people that kept us smiling.  They were the Fans who followed us along the route to make us smile and forget about how much we were aching.  There was the “Pretty Woman Man” who played the song “Pretty Woman” from his truck, the “Pump your arms into the air Guys” who played music and made us pump our arms in the air to make us smile, the “Dancing Woman” who danced to the “I Will Survive” song as we walked by, and the “Bubble Women” who had walked before and had bubble guns going. These groups came out everyday to multiple stops along the route to keep us smiling and laughing.  Everyone got so excited when they would see a group.  They just made the walk that much more amazing. 

            Back to Day One.  At lunch, Mom called Bob on the cell phone to see if he knew where I was.  (As it turned out whenever Mom called Bob to asked about me and how I was doing, I would happen to just walk up to him from being on the route.  Mother’s intuition) It turned out that there was not enough space for all the tents, so they put about a thousand of us in one of the BIG Expo buildings for the night.  It was like one big slumber party.  Mom wanted to make sure that I would not mind (since she was on crew, our tent area was with the crew people) since there would not be any privacy like there would be with a tent.  After walking for 9 hours, I did not care where I slept.  Just give me a bed.

            I finally made it into Camp 1 at 6 o’clock.  An hour before the route closed down.  No bad for starting an hour and half after the first people.  The food was great.  Then again after 9 hours of walking, I would eat just about anything.  I took a hot shower in the mobile shower units singing to the oldies and hit the bed.  I wanted to leave the next morning at 7 am.  I did not sleep very well that night.  I was nervous and it turns out still hungry.  At 1 am, I got out of bed, eat some pretzels, drank some Gatorade and finally got back to sleep for my 5:30 wake up.  I just love earplugs!  I did not hear any of the sleeping noises.

            Day Two – 17+ miles: I am not an early riser and during our 11 months of training, I was worried that I would not be able to get up at 5:30 in the morning.  We got a loud traveling alarm clock, so I would be able to hear it through the earplugs.  Not a problem.  On each morning, I woke up between 4:30-5 before my alarm was to go off at 5:30.  By 7 o’clock, I had changed, pack, eaten breakfast and Mom and Bob were seeing me off.  For Day Two, we were making our way to Skyline Community College in San Bruno.  We walked through the beautiful homes of Hillsborough.  I never knew the exact route because I just followed the route arrows and the people in front of me.  Bob says that we were weaving in the hills along El Camino Real, then come down to El Camino Real for a few blocks and then back into the hills, until we reached Hillcrest Blvd in Millbrae.  The BIG HILL.  Before the BIG HILL, we had our lunch stop.  Bob’s parents (Ben and Eileen) and Tom and Stacy G. visited me at lunch that day.  I was doing better with the walking.  Lunch was at mile 10 just like I was used to, and they were holding us at lunch because Camp 2 was not ready.  It turns out that Skyline Community College is named correctly.  It is at the skyline about 1 mile from the ocean, and fog and wind become one with the college.  Pallotta did not want us up to the camp before 2pm because it was very cold and hard to see.  So they kept us in the warm sun at lunch.  Right around noon, Bob noticed that walkers were starting to line up to leave lunch.  He suggested that I get my shoes on right away and get into line now before it got any longer.  We did not want a repeat of the standing at Opening Ceremonies.  It turns out that I only have to wait about 45 minutes instead of the three hours like a lot of people.  Go Bob!!! 

            The people on Hillcrest are wonderful.  People came out with popsicles, water bottles, hoses, cheers… to help us get up this hill.  It turns out the Cheering Station for the day was also on the hill, so we had tons of people just cheering us on.  As I was saying Thank you to all these people, I would just start crying because they would thank me for walking.  I did not have to stop once.  Thank goodness Cal Poly is on a giant hill.  My lunch hill training walks made the hills a breeze for me.  Going up was great; coming down was a different story.  My knees have never liked going down hill.  Oh well, you just grin and bare it.  From the top of the hill we followed the trail that goes along Crystal Springs Reservoir to HWY 35 and into Skyline College and the FOG. 

As soon as I got into Camp, I saw Mom and grabbed my shower gear.  I wanted to get into warm clothes before I really started to cool down.  That night during dinner there was karoke, and we had some great singers in the crowd.  The SJPD even did YMCA and had the whole tent clapping and yelling.  What a fun night.  I helped Mom sell the Avon products and then it was time to sleep.  I really need a good nights sleep since I had not had one in three nights.  The tent was rocking and rolling in the wind, but I put in my earplugs and the next thing I knew, it was 5am. 

Day Three – 20 miles: Boy was it foggy.  You could not see 30 feet in front of you.  We got breakfast, and I headed out about 7:15.  We walked up to HWY 35 and walked on the side of the road.  They had put cones and flares out, so vehicles would see that something was happening out there in the fog.  It was probably a good idea that it was foggy, so I did not realize how close all the cars were. When HWY 35 meet HWY 1 we started walking through residential streets again.  The fog was handy with one big hill because you could not see the top of it.  If I did, I think that I would have been bummed that I had to go up it.  Fog can be a good thing.  We made our way by Fort Funston through Battery Davis and down to the Great Highway.  From the Great Highway we turned up JFK Blvd. into Golden Gate Park to Lunch.  I walked very fast, so I could get to lunch by noon and then leave at 1 o’clock.  This way I would have three hours to walk the last 6 miles.  I had Bob take a picture of me with the SJPD, and I was off walking.  I had one little blister that I was nursing along, so it would not get bigger.  At 4 miles to go, my left calf really started to tighten up.  I knew that I was starting to use all my reserve muscles in that leg, and I just really need to pay attention to it.  I started playing mind games telling myself that I only had two miles to go. (It was two miles to the last pit stop and then two miles to the end.)  I kept stretching and hoping that my calf would hold up.  I made it to the pit stop.  Only two miles to go.  I just kept thinking, “Calf don’t fail me now”.  At this point, I really wanted to see a smiling face.  I looked up to the sky and asked Dad to help me now; I really need his support.  Just then I saw some luggage trucks come up the road.  As I looked into the cabs, I saw Mom.  I just start jumping up and down, waving my arms because they are waving to some other walkers.  Then Mom saw me and I saw her pointing at me and mouthing, “There's my daughter.”  This is the first time that the luggage trucks had even seen the walkers and there I was.  Thank you Dad. 

As I start walking up to the Holding Area, I am walking up Chestnut Blvd. and there are tons of people in open-air restaurants/bars just on the street cheering us on.  Two men were handing out pink carnations to walkers as they came by.  It all was so inspiring.  Then with two blocks to go, there is Bob smiling at me.  As we approached the Holding Area, people were lining the sidewalk congratulating me on making it.  Then I turned the corner into the actually Area and the place was packed with walkers wearing their blue shirts cheering and clapping as I walked through them.  At this point, I just started to cry.  I had just walked 60 (55 miles on the road and 5 plus walking around camp) miles in three days.  I was sore and tired, but I had made it.  I grabbed my blue shirt (the shirt is long-shirted navy blue that has the dates of the walk on the back of it), put it on with pride and ate some pizza. 

Closing Ceremonies: Walkers wore blue shirts.  Crew was in white and Breast Cancer Survivors were in Pink.  Crew walked the three blocks in the ceremony first.  They were used as crowd control for a while.  Then they gathered all of the walkers together.  The “Pump your arms in the air” Guys were standing on the top of some stadium seats watching us.  They started to pump their arms and all 4, 400 of us started doing it.  It was so cool.  We were all “pumped” up by now.  We started walking and screaming and waving at people in their houses as we walked by.  As we rounded the corner to the Marina Green, we saw tons of people cheering us on.  They had us line up about 50 abroad and who knows how far back.  As I looked at the stage, I could see that they were going to have us go on the outside of some barriers.  They started playing the music from the Opening Ceremonies and we all started walking forwarded.  I walked up to the edge of the barrier, so I would get to clap hands with the survivors as they walked in.  As I looked back, all I could see is a pink wall of women and men, and they started to walk towards us.  I started to cry again.  Everyone was just yelling at the top of their lungs.  Next was the Circle of Survivors who had started the walk three days before.  Then we looked back and saw a wall of white - the wonderful Crewmembers.  They walked into the middle area clapping hands with the Survivors.  How truly amazing.  What had started three days ago was coming to an end.  Or what Bob and I started 11 ½ months ago was ending, but a new part of our life was still continuing. 

Months ago, Mom mentioned that we should stay in a hotel in the City, so we did not need to drive anywhere after the walk.  Boy was she right on.  We walked the five blocks to the Chelsea Motor Inn and had a hot shower.  Then we headed over two blocks to Izzy’s Steak House (great food) for a celebration dinner.  There were other Walkers and Crew in the restaurant, so it was fun to talk with them all.  Amazing people just like me.  I finally started to realize how amazing this feat was.  I had found the old Katie and it felt wonderful.  I am an athlete again.  I am a different person and I need to take it and run (Thank you V&H).  I helped raise money for a great cause.  Once we find the cure for Breast Cancer, we will be able to find a cure for all Cancers.  Underserved women will be able get mammograms and support for treatment.  With all of your wonderful donations, I was able to raise $5035.  The Cal Poly University Police did one last fundraiser to raise the last couple of hundred, so I would get to my goal of $5000.  I want to thank everyone for all their support and encouragement.  It was always so much fun to read your e-mails or when you asked us about the mileage we had walked that weekend.  Thank you all.  WE ARE ALIVE!!!!

Katie and Bob Schrempp, Athletes