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