Cynical, but beautiful

I am back from the 3-Day. I am so tired that i am almost in a trance. (This has nothing to do with the 2nd glass of sake i am drinking, i assure you.)

It was an interesting event, and if i ever talk about doing it again, please be a friend and stage an intervention. I have done the STP (Seattle-to-Portland) 200 mile bicycle ride twice. It is a two day event for me. People who need to get a life do it in one day, but not me. And i will say, that the 3-Day is harder. "It's just walking", you say, as did i before i did it the first time. But have you ever walked 20 miles a day for 3 days in a row? (If you have and it was easy, go away now.)

I did it this time because Em thought it would be cool. You aren't supposed to walk unless you are 16, but i lied about her age because i knew we would never get this chance again, and i knew she could handle it.

Before the walk, two of the adult team members dropped out, so that left 4 of us. And after doing part of the walk the first day, the other adult team member went home. That left me with a 15 and a 16 year old. (Em's cousin, my niece, was the other child.)

The kids were awesome. They hadn't really trained enough, and they were in intense pain the last day, but they wanted to finish. These young ladies are tough and determined. I can't really say enough about how great they are, because it would spill over into gushing. Em waited until we got home and has been crying on and off for an hour because she is exhausted. God i love her.

This is not an event that can really be understood unless you participate.

We reluctantly attended the "deeply moving opening ceremony" the first day because we couldn't think of a way to get out of it. It was hokey. Reality compels me to admit that the walking is superfluous. It's all about the $2,200 each walker must raise in order to participate. And some of the stuff they do to make us feel like the actual walking is bringing us closer to a cure is patently ridiculous. But all along the walk, all three days, people are honking and standing alongside the route cheering and little children are handing us candy and popsicles. And on and on.

The first day, as we were sitting in a park for lunch, a woman got out of her car and approached the walkers sprawled next to us on the grass. She thanked them for walking and said that she had just had reconstructive surgery and so she couldn't walk, but she would walk next year. That's the kind of stuff i can't be an asshole about. That was real.

Maybe more later, i must go and make love to a tube of Bengay now.