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It's impossible to get across how meaningful, life-altering, moving (pick your word) it truly was. Every night was punctuated with heart wrenching stories about battles people have faced. Then at the final ceremonies all of the survivors walked down the middle platform wearing pink shirts. All together, we raised over $6 million dollars. Thanks to my supporters, I was $4,007 of that. :-)
It's sort of hard to describe to people just what it was like. The best I can do is say what it wasn't. It wasn't a race. People chatted as they went along, got their pictures taken with the San Jose cops and the butterfly man and joked with the legions of volunteers. We spent 3 days walking about 20 miles/day from San Jose to San Francisco. Every morning we packed up all our gear and loaded it into trucks so the wonderful volunteers could take it to the next "tent city".
I've tried to capture the feeling of the event and give everybody some of the lighter moments that kept everybody distracted from the pain in their feet. (For the record, I reached mile 60 without a single blister!)
Click on any of the images to see a full size version.
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Day “Zero” ...or registration day, if you prefer. This was the opportunity to go to the safety lecture, turn in the last pledges,or just wander around the De Anza campus waiting for your wife to finish up in her crew meeting. |
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 Registration Day |
 The great philosopher Willy Wonka |
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Day One Day one began with us dragging our happy butts out of the hotel room at an obscenely early hour (“Welcome to the 3-day, now quit your complaining.”) to meet everybody at the starting point. That hotel was the last time we would see a real bed or any of your basic creature comforts for three days. Day one was also the longest day at 24 miles, but the flatest. Translation: Boring and painful using the same muscles all the time. ...In case you're curious, "butterfly man" is a veteran cyclist of several AIDS rides who volunteered to bring up the rear for us. He had an unfortunate spill on the second day. |
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 Loading the trucks |
 Trucks as far as you could see |
 Opening Ceremonies |
 "Butterfly man" |
 ...a big part of the 3-day |
 The thankless traffic crew |
 The Saints of the San Jose PD |
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Day Two Day two is where it got interesting, in more ways than one. It was a shorter walk—16 miles—but it was a lot hillier. We started down low and ended up at Skyline college, where we spent the second night. Even with the killer hills, this was a lot easier on me because I got to rest muscles at different times going flat or climbing. Now, this was the first 3-day in this area, so I have this feeling that the organizers didn’t truly appreciate just how bad the fog is at Skyline. I have this image of a local organizer saying to the national office “No, you don’t understand. It gets REALLY foggy at Skyline. I don’t think that it’s the best place to overnight.” One of the more vivid memories I have is of hiding my head in the sleeping bag the second night because if I didn’t water from the fog would drip on me. A picture says a thousand words... |
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 "The killer hill" |
 The top of the hill |
 "Superstar": The welcoming committee |
 Camp Life at Skyline |
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The fog rolls in... While I was walking on day two, Hayley had the "honor" of monitoring traffic at Skyline for much of the day. She used the opportunity to take several pictures of the tent city being gradually put up by the walkers and then getting socked-in by fog. |
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Day Three Day three started the same way day two ended: Wet. And cold. And foggy. Spirits picked up as the day went on and everybody began to see an end. Somebody even set up the the photo-op below so we could record for posterity (no pun intended) the significance port-a-johns were in our life. When your mantra is "hydrate, urinate, hydrate, urinate..." you look forward to seeing them. All kidding aside, despite the fact that I ended up not getting a single blister I was in serious pain the last several miles, but by then finishing was a matter of principle. It was indescribable crossing the finish line with Hayley there to greet me. One of our only regrets was not having enough film for the closing ceremonies. |
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 One more day... |
 ...venturing into the nothingness. |
 The Throne |
 Getting closer |
 The finish line!!! |