On Sunday, the Check-In Crew team helped wake us up with their smiles, bath robes and curlers in their hair. We all got pumped up to tackle the HUGE hill just before Pit Stop 1. The route led us through Golden Gate Park and past City Hall. We enjoyed beautiful weather the whole way until the Holding Area at Fort Mason, into the final victory walk along the harbor to the Closing Ceremony on Marina Green.

I woke up at 5am and went to take a shower. We had to get all of our belongs packed up, eat breakfast, and get our tents put away. Everything was soaking wet and cold because of the dew. When the sun rose there was so much fog we couldn't see the Golden Gate Bridge even though we were staying within ¼ of a mile from it.

I found my team mates by 7am and ate breakfast with them. Angie and I were ready to go at the same time so we started out together again. We had such a good time talking and walking with each other. We happened to like to walk at the same speed.

We only had to walk about 15 miles so we knew we could do that without a problem. We didn't realize how much of a walk we really had. There was one good sized hill that had a 33% grade to it and we walked up it. We had several good down hills also.

We decided it was easier on our bodies to jog down the hills than to walk down the hills. Every time we stopped even at a stoplight our muscles would start to cramp up again and it would take a few minutes to work out the cramps.

We still had our "Hotties" cheering us on but in downtown San Francisco it was getting harder for them to find parking and to make it through the crowds so we did not see them as much as the previous days. Every block throughout the whole 3 days our crew had put up signs with motivational sayings like "Blisters are better than chemo", 'Some angels have wings, some have sneakers", "The journey of a thousand miles starts with one step", "You can do it".

Our "Hookers" had 3 signs in a row to motivate us. The last sign read something like, "We know you can do it because we have done it" on the bottom of the sign was a picture of them walking the 3 Day. About a half of a block away they were on a corner in their pajamas cheering us on. We could not have asked for better motivation.

Angie and I finished the walk by 12:30 and we had until 4:30 for closing ceremonies to start. We found out that we were among the first 70 walkers to complete the 60 miles. I sat down to rest for 30 minutes and my body cramped up so much I could barely walk. My right knee started to swell and my feet now had 3 blisters on them.

I decided to walk to where everyone was cheering the walkers that were still coming in. These men and women were coming in with ace bandages around their ankles, calves, and knees. When some women took off there shoes they had more mole skin on their feet from blisters than skin showing on them. Several people came in hobbling in on crutches even though they had not started off on crutches. One guy had done the walk in a wheel chair, there was an older women who walked it even though she used a cane.

There is a group of men walking called the 60 mile men who have made calendars to raise the money to walk this. Their website is www.60milemen.org. One man walks all 14 of the 3 Day walks around the country for the last few years. I don't know where he gets the energy or stamina to complete so many. One woman who is a retired school teacher has walked 93 of these and raised over a million dollars for the Susan G Komen Foundation.

One man, around 30 years old, walked all 60 miles with us and then at every pit stop he was seeing what he could do to help every person around him. In the evening he helped the crew clean up or see what he could do to help. I talked to him and found out he was from Baltimore and was single but was not interested in doing the walk to find someone to date (he was very adamant about that) but was just interested in helping the cause.

Around 3:30 the rest of our team came in so Angie and I ran to them and congratulated them for finishing.

Closing Ceremony

The money you raised will go a long way to helping Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund save lives.

Finally around 4:30 we were ready for the closing ceremony. Christina and I linked arms and walked together into the closing ceremony since we got separated from the rest of our team.

A typical afternoon at the Golden Gate.

At first all of the walkers came in wearing white shirts and then the crew members came in wearing grey shirts. Next all of the survivors walked in wearing pink. As they announced that the breast cancer survivors were coming in we all knelt down and held up 1 of our sneakers. Then they raised the breast cancer flag in the middle of the survivor circle. I looked around and didn't see a dry eye.

We turned around to the speaker and she had about 15 people carrying flags in that said, "Tribute to my partner', For my wife", For my Aunt", For my Children" , My Hero", My mother" and several other signs.

At the front of the stage were 4 signs. The first said "My Children" and this woman's 2 young children came to her and stood beside her, the next sign said "My Daughter" and the woman's adult daughter came up and gave her mom a hug. The daughter had a head wrap where her hair should have been. Next was "For my hero". The girl holding this sign was about 20 years old and her mother walked out beside her. And the last sign said "for my husband" a woman was holding up the flag and her husband walked out.

That was basically the end of the ceremony.

After that I was reunited with Jeremy and the kids. We went over to Jeremy's parents house and had dinner with them and Jeremy's Grandma Garcia. I could hardly walk and my knee continued to swell up. Even the pain was worth it to be part of this amazing walk.