{As mentioned in the prior two posts – the first on selecting your walk & gearing up, and the second on training & fundraising – it’s incredibly important that you understand this is what I did and these are the choices I made based on my experience. Before you get into doing a walk like this, you should definitely talk with medical professionals, like your doctor, a personal trainer, etc., to make sure it’s the right thing for you. Also, another reminder: none of the companies mentioned in these posts asked me to mention them or compensated me for talking about them in the context of my marathon walk.}

And now we come to the big dance:

Walking

The Walk has a rolling start, beginning at 5:30am, and since it can take 8-9hrs to walk a marathon, there was no way I wanted to start it late. So, we got up at 4am and started preparing to go. I will also note that dd, who didn’t want us to go, kept us up from 12:45am until we gave up and turned off the alarm a little before 4am, so we were already operating at a deficit.

We made a couple of peanut butter sandwiches for each of us, stuffed those and some granola bars in our bags, and off we went. DH had a couple of bottles of water, and I had my Camelbak hydration pack (which I’d filled about halfway with water, since I didn’t go through all of the water I brought last year, when I’d filled the pack’s bladder). We drove up to Copley Square and parked, then hopped one of the schoolbuses chartered to bring walkers out to Hopkinton. Some people chatted loudly, others (like us) nodded off and slept most of the way out the Mass Pike to the start line.

Once we got to Hopkinton, it was ON. DH and I got to the start line and just started moving. Knowing that I would probably start to have hip and knee problems about halfway through, I’d taken some ibuprofen at the start, just before we got on the road. This turned out to be a more common practice than I’d suspected; many of the veteran walkers I spoke to had done the very same thing. I’d even dumped a bottle into a baggie to bring with me, in case others needed some (much as I’d been helped by an angel at the lunch tent last year).

Every mile marker we passed was a sweet reminder of why we did this Walk.

Each marker brought you one step closer to the finish line, one step closer to a cure for the cancers that plague Dana-Farber’s patients. The walkers’ tradition is to touch each mile marker as you pass it, to acknowledge the amazing heroes chronicled on each sign.

I didn’t start to feel twingy, really, until around the 9th mile, at which point I knew we weren’t too far off from the halfway point. We had stopped to stretch a little more than last year, and I was good about grabbing snacks at the various “hydration stations” situated a few miles apart along the route. My typical take was a bottle of red Gatorade and something with some carbs and/or protein, here a Larabar, there a banana, occasionally a package of pretzels. I tugged on my hydration pack’s drinking tube here and there, and the rest of the time I was rocking the Gatorade. After having had such great success with it during last year’s walk, there was no way I would abandon a winning formula in the current year. I also brought more socks with me this year, and I changed my socks when we were at the 8th mile marker, planning to do one more change when we got to Boston College (mile 21).

On and on we went, and the twinges in my knee were starting to bug me. It wasn’t so horrible as last year, though, so I soldiered on until we hit the halfway point in Wellesley. When we stopped to stretch, I took more ibuprofen and ate a peanut butter sandwich, figuring that would give me some more power for the next portion of the Walk.

Just after the halfway point, around about mile 13 or 14, we made it to the lunch tent, where we reunited with a pair of walkers we’d met earlier on in the day. That’s the great thing about doing such a long event; you tend to see the same folks over and over again, and you use them as some way of determining where you are in the “pack”, especially when it’s not a well-defined grouping like you’d see with a shorter distance event. The lunch tent was filled with sandwiches of all kinds – peanut butter and jelly, ham, turkey…as well as Cape Cod chips, Fig Newtons and fruit. DH and I grabbed hefty lunches: a sandwich, a bag of chips, a bag of cookies and a banana. Everything has its purpose; aside from the tremendous number of calories you burn by walking for so long, you also lose minerals and you dehydrate, so everything you take is there to help replace what you’re using up.

Feeling refreshed, we got back on the road, and I can’t even say how happy I was that I wasn’t limping. It’s hard to explain to someone who’s never been in tremendous hip and/or knee pain, but when you are able to WALK TALL when the prior event you were limping and shuffling, it’s an amazing difference and a huge confidence boost.

Coming into the hills in Newton, year in, year out, you come across “The Orange Guy” – a resident who passes out pounds and pounds of orange wedges to the hungry and thirsty walkers who pass him by. He and his wife were such sweethearts, and I’d been given the head’s up last year to expect their tasty oranges. Sure enough, both years, I’ve seen them out there dishing out tasty treats to keep us moving. They do this same drill for the Boston Marathon (race) in April, and I think it’s just fantastic. They’re not the only ones who come out to cheer on the walkers, but they are certainly the most intrepid…and scurvy-preventing.

On and on we walked, and here’s where I start to get a sense that even my not-quite-optimal training schedule managed to get me closer to where I needed to be. One girl, sporting a back sack covered in pins from an herbal supplement company that she (clearly) worked for, was having quite a bit of trouble making her way up the hills. I could tell she was in pain, as she held her hip and moved stiffly. I offered her some ibuprofen, but she had already taken some, so she thanked me and limped along. I felt somewhat proud that I’d been able to make it so far without much difficulty.

NO PARKING means “KEEP MOVING” in walker-ese

The sun and heat were starting to get to me by the time we reached BC. I’m not great in heat, and I’d already stripped down to my tank top (I started the Walk wearing a tech t-shirt over my tech-tank, along with tech capris). At Boston College, I pulled off my tank and replaced it with a fresh one, just to try to cool me down a little further – and reduce the goat factor. Another change of socks, a swig of Gatorade for strength, and back down the hill, out of the Heights, we went. I knew…only five miles left…I have to make it better than I did last year.

We kept moving and sometime between a few minutes and forever later, we came upon Kenmore Square, only two miles from the finish. At this point, I’m still WALKING. No limping. I have a pair of very small blisters starting to form on the bottoms of my feet, but they weren’t bugging me at all. It seems improbable, impossible, even, that I’m feeling less pain than dh claims to have. How is this happening? Even ibuprofen isn’t THAT good.

And then the amazing happens. We get to the finish line and I could RUN across it. I won’t lie – I was tired, and I was warm, and I was ready to SIT DOWN FOR A WEEK – but I danced across the finish line, so incredibly thrilled that not only did I finish the marathon, but I finished it strong. I surprise myself sometimes. Ask me if I want to walk another 26.2 for The Jimmy Fund and the answer is OH MY YES. It’s not that it’s not a challenge; it’s a huge challenge. But what an amazing thing to do that helps so many.

YYYYYEEEEESSSSSS!!!!!

Next post (and final in the series): Recovery

{In the first part of this series, I began with the selection and gearing up issues and choices I ran into with walking my second marathon. Now, we’ll move into training and fundraising. Also, now’s as good a time as any to repeat that I am NOT a medical professional, I am NOT your doctor, and I am not a certified personal trainer. Before you decide to do any of the stuff I talk about, go talk to someone who can give you a professional medical opinion.}

Training

Ah, training. My least favorite part of any event – not because I don’t like having to train but because I often find it hard to allocate the time to train. When you’re training for an event that involves speed, like running or swimming, your training is timed around a speed sport. When you’re training for an event that may or may not involve speed but that requires a lot of endurance, your training is timed around building endurance. Walking a marathon isn’t something where you immediately focus on how fast you can do it; the goal is to finish, not necessarily to finish first. And, unlike training for something like a 5K or 10K walk (which I don’t even really train for, after the number of them I’ve done in my life), training to walk 26.2mi can take TIME. Think about it this way: the average non-speedy walking speed is around 15-20min/mile. That means that a 5K (3.1mi) walk should take about 45-60min to complete when not packed in like sardines. A 10K should be double that, so maybe up to 2-1/4hrs. A marathon, however, could then run you anywhere from 6-1/2hrs to 8-3/4hrs.

Imagine trying to train for an event that takes you an entire work day. It’s nuts.

And then there are the logistics, like finding bathrooms along your route (once you’ve mapped a route), staying hydrated and fed, and even HOW to map a route! It adds up to a lot of stress very quickly.

To minimize frustration, I came up with a couple of routes that I could easily tap as standard walks, and I familiarized dh with them so that he would have a general sense of where I’d be when in my training walk. Google Maps has a nice option for doing walking directions; it’s not perfect, but it’s useful enough that you can drag the route around until you find your desired mileage. For me, a 10K is my preferred length for a weekend training walk, since I can’t get 2hrs of dedicated time during any given day in the work-week to walk. Typically, if I can manage to get about one hour a day, 2-3 times a week, I feel like I got a decent set of workouts in for a work-week. On the weekend, at least one longer walk (such as a 10K), makes me feel a lot less like a schlub.

There are training calendars out there that will help you figure out what you need to walk and when, such as these from The Walking Site. Remember, though, that it’s not all about just walking. You have to intermix the walking with other exercises, like strength training or some form of weights work, so that you’re cross-training. Whether you decide to go for personal training or just buy a DVD from Jillian Michaels, there are tons of low-cost, high-value options to help you build strength and insert some variety in your schedule. For me, I found that some of the workouts I did when testing out products I was reviewing, like the Empower Fitness Fingertip Grip Medicine Ball, helped me cross-train. And the stretches I got from the trainer at my gym were ones I used both when I was cooling down from walks and when I was stretching during the marathon walk.

Think of all of these things as tools that go into a toolbox; use what you need when you need it, but fill it as much as you can so that you have the best possible chance for success.

I will admit that I didn’t train as much as I wanted to this summer. Early and often, I let picking up the kids, my husband’s triathlon training schedule, and a whole host of other things give me the excuse as to why I wasn’t working out that day. So, when it came to the day of the marathon, I really didn’t know how I would do. Scary stuff.

Fundraising

The other marathon associated with this walk is the fundraising component. You can raise as little as $300 (or at least that was the minimum this year), and once you cross the threshold of $1250, you start making “Pacesetter” designation. Given that I’m not sure I’ll ever raise another dime for Komen, I wanted to pour all of my effort into this; I decided I REALLY wanted to make Pacesetter.

I started out by leaning on the tools available through the Walk web site. Most events these days have either use a solution from Kintera or make their own Kintera-like setup, so there are the usual reports, e-mail features, etc. I blasted out an e-mail and waited. And waited. And waited. Sigh.

Realizing that my own group of friends and family would be insufficient to get me where I needed to go (and understanding that from the moment I set my goal of $1250), I set up a meeting with the Corporate Social Responsibility team at my office. For some folks, this may be a function embedded within Human Resources; ours is a wholly separate team that handles all of the requests for fundraising events, among other things. Anything related to philanthropy goes through them. Unfortunately, since I work in Rhode Island and live in Massachusetts, I wasn’t able to use all of the internal means we have available in order to promote my events. Ah well. This is where knowing A LOT of people comes in handy. Being shameless also helps, too.

I decided to do two events, the most profitable being an “opportunity drawing”. In any other world, we’d call that a “raffle”, but there’s all kinds of legalese around raffling, whether or not it’s gambling and BLAH BLAH LEGAL BS BLAH. The way it works is simple enough: just come up with a bunch of baskets or gifts that people can donate to get a chance to win. Each donation results in the donor getting tickets. The key thing for it not to be a legal nightmare is to make sure that anybody can participate; if someone had no money (or simply didn’t want to donate) but wanted to get a ticket, I’d give them one. It’s as simple as that. Also, I had to keep the total value of any one gift to no more than $250. OK – easy enough.

I had a few things I pulled together myself, plus a basket donated by a co-worker and a bunch of stuff I got at BlogHer ’12. That raised me enough to get me about 1/3 of the way to my goal, which placed me within striking distance when combined with what I’d gotten from friends and family. A few more reminder e-mails and some pleas on Facebook got me the remainder weeks before the Walk started – and I raised almost $1400. It was really amazing.

Realizing that some long walking events, like the 3-day breast cancer walks, have stiff donation minimums (usually $2000 or more), I can’t imagine trying to raise money without doing something drastic – like opportunity drawings at work, having a lemonade stand, or hitting up extremely rich relatives. It’s hard to raise money when the economy’s somewhat in the tank and people are more worried about making their mortgage payment than cancer research. Still, people opened up their wallets, and I’m sure it helped my cause tremendously that The Jimmy Fund has tremendous name recognition in New England. The fundraising was somewhat stressful, but the help I got from the Walk organizers made it a ton easier (once they had my event information and approved it, I was able to get official materials with the Jimmy Fund Walk logo to use as part of my promotions). Key lesson for those who haven’t done this before: work with the official teams in your office and at the event, since they are there to help you. Most companies like to tout their philanthropic work, so don’t be surprised if they jump at helping to take credit for the good work you do. For me, that’s fine…as long as I get what I need in order to raise the most possible money for charity.

Next post in this series: walking…

This time last year, I was gearing up to walk my first marathon. Given the schedule, this year’s walk came sooner…but at least I knew what to expect this time around. Until I registered for the 2011 Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk, I figured that there’s no way I’d ever get to do a marathon. First off, I thought you could only really run them (not true). Second, I knew I couldn’t run one (true – and also would be in direct violation of my doctor’s “DON’T RUN” rule). Third, I assumed marathons were only for elite athletes or people who are VERY, very in-shape (not necessarily true). And it wasn’t until I did my first marathon that I figured out what was really true and what wasn’t. Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, walking one marathon prepared me so much more for the successive ones than anyone’s advice could have, so I’ve decided to cram all those lessons learned into the next couple of blog posts.

As a reminder, the Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk is an annual walking event in the Boston area that benefits the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a cancer research and treatment facility that has gained a lot of notoriety for their pediatric care, in addition to their adult care, as well as a boatload of research and treatment options that they’ve developed or pioneered. Loads of people support them, and they have strong affiliations with local sports teams, like the Boston Red Sox and the Boston Bruins. Kids with cancer – how can you NOT support that?!

You don’t have to walk a full marathon; you can walk a half-marathon (13.1mi), which departs from Babson College, you can walk a 5mi course that departs from Boston College, or you can walk a 5K course that departs from Dana-Farber itself. I chose the full marathon (26.2mi), which leaves from Hopkinton, MA, and follows the entire Boston Marathon route run by all those amazing people on Patriots Day every year.

The way I see it, walking any marathon comes down to a few essential things – and walking one for charity just adds an additional component:

1. Event Selection
2. Gearing Up
3. Training
4. Fundraising
5. Walking
6. Recovering

I’ll cover the first two of those items in this post, and the remaining two will go into the next three posts. Now for the VERY important disclaimer: None of the manufacturers, companies, etc. that I’m writing about have given me ONE THING in exchange for this. I’m writing my opinion about products, services, and businesses that I picked on my own without any kind of quid pro quo. Also, I’m not an expert. Before you go and do something as nuts as walking 26.2mi in one day, PLEASE consult with your doctor, personal trainer, and any other folks who can give you an eyeball up and down and determine whether they think you’re up for it. In other words, don’t do or say as I do until you’ve had someone else confirm that you should take part in a walking event.

Event Selection

There aren’t a ton of walking marathons in this area, or at least there aren’t a lot that I hear about. The Boston Marathon is one of those elite, world-famous races, so the temptation to get to do this amazing route is incredibly high. Since I know I can’t run a race (remember: doctor’s orders!), I figured I HAD to try to walk it. The bar for entry is incredibly low – anybody can register (small entry fee) and this year, you needed to raise a minimum of $300. In events like this, where there’s a minimum fundraising amount, the event organizer will take a credit card number from you (whatever you use for registering) and if you haven’t raised at least the minimum by some time on or after the event date, the difference to get you to that minimum will be charged to your card. So, there’s motivation to raise $$. If you want to try a walking marathon with no fee, I suppose you could always organize something that gives you bathroom breaks around every 2-3mi, walking past your friends’ houses for 26.2mi…but going with a professionally organized event is a much better bet. Really.

Gearing Up

I had some trial and error going on here, at first. My first selection of shoes, a pair of Saucony Grid shoes, was nice enough…but the toebox wasn’t really big enough for my ultra-wide feet. What this meant was that I ended up with a bloody sock and damage to my feet. NOT. GOOD. My pointer toenails STILL haven’t recovered from that, even more than a year later.

After a false start attempt with a running store nearish to my office, I found what I needed at Marathon Sports – a local chain of running stores that’s known for being serious about getting you into the right gear. In my case, my wide feet demanded a similarly wide shoe, so the right fit for me ended up being an EXTRA WIDE pair of men’s Brooks Addiction sneakers. What’s the lesson here? It’s not that you should go to a running store, since that should be a given. The lesson I learned was that I should ignore the mens/womens labels when it comes to certain gear, since the womens line may not have what I need to fit my size or shape. Mens shoes proved to be the right way to go.

As far as everything else – all I wear is wicking material. A trip to the nearby outlet mall scored me plenty of that; I have sleeveless shirts (tanks, but not spaghetti strap ones), capri pants, and jog bras that all wick moisture away from my body. I’ve come to the point in my life where I’m so used to wearing wicking materials that I can’t work out in cotton. I had a workout in a cotton t-shirt at BlogHer ’12 and I thought I was going to suffocate, the material was so hot and stuffy. UGH. I won’t link to specific items, since everything I got came from the outlet and is likely discontinued by now. I can say that I tend to favor Reebok items, because they’re local. Of course.

My socks are also wicking material. You may not care a ton about socks until you realize how much work they have to do on your behalf. You need the right amount of cushion but not too much thickness, you need breathable material while still providing protection…you need your socks to do a ton without costing you an arm and a leg. The ones I chose come from REI; they’re fab socks that go just above the ankle, so I don’t have to worry about any possibility of them slipping down and leaving my ankle exposed for blistering. Not that my Brooks shoes would ever TRY to give me a blister, but a little protection can go a long way.

At the recommendation of a friend, I even went with wicking underwear (also from REI). I can’t tell whether the stuff is magical or not, but I can say that having everything on your body in the same general level of breathability can contribute to your overall level of comfort, and even a little bit of straight-up cotton can throw things off. At least for me, that’s what I’ve found. In other words, your mileage may vary, so try stuff out if you want to change things up or leave them as they are when you find something that works. This is what works for me.

Next post: Training and Fundraising…