Almost time!

In about 36 hours I'll be standing at Southdale Mall checking in for the 3-Day. I'm already packed and somehow, I managed to get a sleeping bag, and air mattress and pump and all of my clothes/shoes into one duffle bag. I'm ready to go!

I'm going to pretend my little sore throat and sneezes this morning meant nothing. Drinking some OJ, sucking on a throat lozenge and going to be very early!

PS Our tent number is H-97 in case any other walkers are looking for us.

Last Wednesday walk....

Tonight is the last Wednesday training walk before the big event -- Another trip around Medicine Lake (7-8 miles) and hoping for no rain this week! Going to miss this little training walk group for sure!

10 Days

Today I sent out my invitation emails to invite people who are local to show up at the cheer stops and/or the closing ceremony. Here are the locations:

Friday Morning August 20- Opening Ceremony
Southdale Center (10 Southdale Center, Edina MN 55435)
7:00am - Opening Ceremony (bring chair if you can't stand for 30-60 minutes)

Cheer Stations:
It's hard to know when we'll walk through these stations as it depends on how quick you walk and how long you dawdle at the pit stops/lunch/porta-pottys etc. I've heard from many people that the cheer stations are a lot of fun though and people tend to bring chairs and enjoy cheering everyone on. The girls on my training walks said that it is awesome to see someone you know and it keeps you going! People make signs or bring noisemakers, some pass out mints, candy, snacks, stickers or mini water bottles or powdered gatorade to add to water. You don't have to bring anything but yourself!!

Friday - Cheer Stations - August 20
8:45a - 11:00a - Lake Harriet Band Shell (4135 Lake Harriet Pkwy, Mpls MN 55409)
10:00a - 2:00p - Parade Ice Garden (600 Kenwood Parkway, Mpls MN 55403)

Saturday - Cheer Stations - August 21
7:30a - 9:15a - Holiday Inn Express (1100 County Road E, Vadnais Heights MN, 55110)
8:45a-1:15pm - Ramsey Cty Island Lake Park (3611 North Victoria, Shoreview MN 55126)
10:45a - 4:15p - St. Paul Regional Water Svcs (1900 Rice Street, St. Paul MN 55113)

Sunday - Cheer Stations - August 22
8:00a - 10:00a - Northwood Park (2006 1st Street North, St Paul, MN 55109)
11:00a - 3:00p - Indian Mounds Park (1113 Mounds Blvd, St. Paul MN 55106)

Closing Ceremony - Sunday August 22
4:30pm - Minnesota State Capital Grounds (109 Aurora Ave, St. Paul MN 55103)
** Bring folding chairs (or stand for 30-60 minutes)

Here are some video links that give you an idea of what this event will be like:

3-Day Journey
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpuO6MXwmLQ

Cheer Stations:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y52mh7FftaM

Training Walks

Today Jodi hosted a training walk around Lake Calhoun and Lake Harriet and then we had lunch at Tin Fish. We had a great turnout - I think 14 of us total. Can't believe its less than 2 weeks away!!

My family rocks!

My sisters and their kids suprised me today! My nephews drew a really cute sign to hang on our tent with our little "Sweet Peeps" logo on it.

My sisters made a nest with two Sweet Peeps in it that we can clip to the top of our tent so we can find it in the sea of pink tents. I love it!

Goal!!!

Today was a great day -- I hit my fundraising goal of $2300 and actually exceeded it by about $100 --- Thank you so much to everyone who helped support me!

On June 11-12, I went to Wisconsin to do "Relay For Life". My parents were both able to walk the "Survivor" lap and Morgan and I walked for about 6 hours that night to raise money for Cancer research.

Happy Mother's Day

Today I took part in the Susan G Komen 5k at Mall of America - along with over 50,000 other people. There were so many people the walk took almost 90 minutes and I was going as quick as possible - you couldn't move! The whole day was so inspiring anhd I can't wait until August! You can see all my pictures here.

Half-Time!!!

Today I received a donation that put me exactly 50% of the way to my fundraising goal --- thank you to everyone who has supported me so far, I truly appreciate you!!

If you have a someone you'd like me to add to my "I'm walking" list on the left -- please email and let me know!! I will be carrying all of these names with me on the walk and would be honored to remember your loved ones too.

StepToIt.org -- Coming up soon!!

I am getting good at finding fun things to do that involve walking! I signed up to be part of "steptoit.org" which will run from May 17 - June 13. This even pits 18 communities in Hennepin county against each other to see who moves the most! It's sponsored by the Minnesota Twins baseball team and even the Mayors of the various communities have bets going.

Check it out here.

If you haven't checked out "Meetup.com" in your area -- you really should! There are so many great groups to join -- with interests in everything from walking to politics to beer tasting to coffee to dancing to bowling... you get the picture.

This week I joined a couple different walking oriented meetup groups -- so that will help keep me motivated and out there moving my feet!

This morning I did an event for the American Heart Association called "Start! Heart Walk". It was in Uptown and they gave you little maps to follow and businesses along the way offered discounts. I saw some very interesting sights, found a "free" bike that I took home to ride and tried bubble tea for the first time -- and I got in 4 miles of walking!


In addition to this event, there is a big walk on June 5th that I'll be participating in with my company. The American Heart Association is another cause dear to my heart as my dad is a survivor of a triple bypass and I lost a few of my grandparents to heart disease.

St. Patricks Day Human Race

This morning I walked the St. Patricks Day Human Race 5k with my sister Kate and a friend, Patty Thomas. It was held near the St. Thomas campus in St. Paul up and down Summit. It was a gorgeous day, lots of people and we chatted so much it felt like we were only there 5 minutes! More information and photos from this event are posted here.

yay! a team logo!

I found Tina's name on the Team Captain forum's for the Susan G Komen 3-Day. I can't wait to get our shirts printed to wear on the walk and during training. You can see more of her great work at http://3daywalkers.blogspot.com/ -- she does these for donations to her walk so its all for a great cause.

Thank you Tina!!!

what a great day!

Today was great!! I sent out my first donation emails to everyone I know and got some great feedback and watched my little meter jump up to over $500 today!! Thank you to everyone who has helped so far -- and don't forget to send me the name of your loved ones if you want me to carry them on my walk! My list is growing!

The second great thing today: I have a new teammate! My niece Morgan will be 16 by the time of this event and that is the minimum age -- and she wants to go! I am so excited to have her join me and experience this together. Our team is "Sweet Peeps" and our team page is at www.The3Day.org/goto/sweetpeeps

The third great great thing: It was over 60 degrees today so I decided to skip the treadmill and walk my dogs. I took them each on a little 2 mile journey and got in an easy 4 miles before dinner. So now, even my dogs are in training :) This picture is of Louie, my little rescue mutt who LOVES to jump in every mud puddle along the way.

Life is good.

100% irish for a day 5k...

Today I entered my first ever 5k and it was soooo much fun! I figured this would be great training for the Susan G Komen walk -- and support other great charities in the process. Today the charity was Second Harvest so people brought all sorts of canned goods to donate.

The race today was the "100% Irish for a Day" and it took place at Lake Harriet. It was cold (35 degrees) and windy but not raining - whew! I wish I had brought one of my dogs but I met some great people. There was a nice group of girls that walked wtih me most of the way and it was their first 5K too. They asked me tons of questions about the 3-Day so maybe I recruited a few more!

This picture is at the finish line... one of the girls I walked with made me wear her St. Pat's stuff so that explains the hat. I had so much fun I think I might do another one tomorrow -- but I'll have to find some fun Irish clothes to ewar tonight -- I felt out of place. Check out the pictures on my 5k Page and you'll see a few ideas of what I mean.

Road ID

I have a friend who is an avid biker and one day, she was on the trails she rode all the time and realized, she took a wrong turn and got lost. She had forgotten her cell phone that day and if anything happened to her, who would have known?

She told me about RoadID which is a little wrist band you wear with your important info - just in case something happens on your walk/run/bike ride. You can actually print anything you want on the 6 lines available.

I ordered a pink one (of course) and here is an example of the data you can put on it. I am no longer diabetic but it would be a great thing to include if you are!



Create your own RoadID here: http://roadid.com/ -- I used a discount code I found on this blog http://iwannagetphysical.blogspot.com/2010/02/stairs-hills-and-road-id-coupon-code.html and I bet you could too! (Thanks Steve, nice speedo!) It gave me 20% and the code is PC621528SIAS - Be safe out there!

my first donation...

What a great day! I got my first donation from my good friend Kim. It's nice to see my total move up from $0. Thank you so much Kim! Next year you're walking with me!! If you want to make a donation, you can click on my little pink box on the right or visit my donation page here: http://www.The3Day.org/GOTO/MissMaryMac Every dollar helps in this fight!

training walk orientation...

I attended my first training walk on MArch 6th. We met at 8:00am at Har-Mar mall. If you know me, you know I'm not a morning person but I was up early and excited and actually arrived 20 minutes early! I am convinced the aliens have taken over my body as this whole thing is so completely out of my comfort zone - especially doing something like this alone.

The team from NEw Balance was there to measure and fit everyone with good walking shoes. I got 2 pair to break in good before August and I love that they are pink too. I bought a stay dry hoodie and some stay-dry socks so I feel officials.

After everyone was fitted with their shoes, we took a training walk around the mall. There were about 60 people at the event and we walked almost 4 miles -- the time flew by!! It was fun talking to everyone and learning their stories about why they were there. I met some great people and left there knowing I can make a difference.

and so it begins...

On March 3rd, I attended a "Getting Started" meeting to learn about this event. I went for information and I walked out fully registered and ready to go!

I figure that for three days I can walk 60 miles, sleep in a little pink tent, shower on a semi-truck, become friends with the porta-a-potty and leave my makeup and hairdryer at home -- I can do this in the hope that one day there will be a cure. Does anyone still have some of those cute spongy pink curlers we used as kids? They might come in handy!! LOL

promise ring...

Last week, I requestes information about the Susan G Komen 3 Day for the cure. I recieved my packetof information today which included brochures, a DVD,a promise ring and a registration form.

I love the promise ring as much as I love my yellow livestrong bracelet. (Which I've had on for almost 6 years now since my Mothers first cancer diagnosis.)

The DVD was very moving and I think I can do this. It's pretty scary to consider 60 miles when I'm used to doing about 2-3 miles a day but it is a good goal and a great cause!!