Soooo! I drive to Evanston to meet my walking buddy, Natasha. This is only our second “date,” we met for lunch a week ago after e-mailing and talking on the phone for a few weeks. I’ve heard from so many cool people: walkers and soon-to-be walkers from all over the country. Natasha and I clicked from our first e-mail, and our lunch at Thai Sookdee confirmed that we had a lot in common.

Natasha walks very fast. Here, I’m supposed to be the veteran walker who works out every day, and I’m eating her dust. It’s fine until I try to talk. Luckily, Natasha has no trouble walking and talking at the same time, and she regales me with stories salacious enough to make me long for my single days. We also cover movies, books, writing, her recent trip to New York, my upcoming trip to Key West, why we’re walking (her mom was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997 and is a survivor), and food. Yes, ultimately, it’s all about the food.

We walked for a brisk 2 hours, from her apartment near Dodge and Dempster (Mmmm...Burger King) to McCormick, where we walked south along the bike path to Pratt, then back again. I’m calling it 6 miles. It was cold, but not too bad. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time for the traditional post-walk gorging session, but we’ll make up for it next time. Delicious hot shower when I got home.

1-20
I feel pretty good!

1-24
In an effort to mold my body into top walking form, I took my first spinning class today at the Y. I was pleasantly surprised at how well I did; the last time I got on an exercise bike, I think I wilted after only 10 minutes. Extremely “saddle sore,” but otherwise it was a great workout. My quads will strike fear into the hearts of all who behold them! Hopefully, I will be able to move my legs tomorrow.

1-26
Mailed my pledge letters!! Off to a much earlier start than last 2 years, but I was in the mood to do it, so I’m glad to have it out of the way. My fundraising efforts are far from over, however, as I intend to branch out from my letter campaign and try some more creative tactics.

Second training walk! Upper 50s!! Wore my heavier coat, because it has enough pocket space to accomodate my camera, chapstick, two pledge letters, Tylenol, water bottle, wallet, keys, and kleenex. Just not ready to strap on the fannypack yet.

Natasha and I decided not to take any chances on running out
of time after walking, so we went immediately to the Lucky Platter
(or, the “Happy Plate,” as my mom likes to call it) to eat and brainstorm fundraising schemes over watery pumpkin soup and an exquisite portabella mushroom sandwich. Natasha wrote all our ideas down on a napkin; I can’t remember everything we came up with, but I know she’s writing to Peter Gabriel. Natasha, I hope you kept that napkin. I seriously can’t remember anything but Peter Gabriel!

Anyway, full but not stuffed, we headed toward Evanston’s lakefront. Of course I was broiling in my heavy coat, but I tied it around my waist. Everyone and their dogs were out enjoying the gorgeous day. Felt great! Slow down, Natasha! Man, I thought I walked fast. We followed the path along the lake and up north a bit. I wore my pedometer and am pretty sure I got it set right. Again, 2 hours = 6 miles. Felt about right.

One thing I love about training is that sense of accomplishment, even after “only” two hours. The feeling that you’ve earned the right to do whatever you want for the rest of the day.

On Sunday, Dave and I went to my brother-in-law Char’s birthday party. The guest of honor:Pam! Pam had e-mailed me a few days before the party, upon visiting my Web site. After our initial e-mail exchange, she wrote again, saying, “I didn’t know you were Dawn’s sister-in-law!!!” Dawn is indeed my sister-in-law and Pam’s co-worker! Turns out Dawn had mentioned me to Pam when Pam registered for the 3-Day. So! Since Dawn was hosting the birthday party, she invited Pam so the two of us could meet. When I arrived, my mother-in-law said, “Your friend Pam is here!” and indeed she was. We chatted for about half an hour about walking, eating, fundraising, etc., while my niece Holly vied for my attention. I don’t think I set a very good training example by wolfing down chips and salsa and barbecue meatballs, but we all have our own training regimes. Anyway, it was great to meet Pam and I hope to get in some walks with her and her MOM who signed up for the walk a week after Pam did. Good on yer, Pam’s mom!

2-3
3 walks this week. An hour on Monday and Wednesday, even tho it was cold. I wanted to try another spinning class on Thursday, but thanks to Wednesday’s “snow event,” I had to make shoveling my exercise du jour. Rounded off the week with a furious dance and weight-lifting session on Tuesday and took Friday off.

Yesterday (Saturday), Natasha and I walked about 4 miles. Oh, yes we did! Natasha says it didn’t feel like 4 miles to her, but I have made a pact with my pedometer: I won’t question its readout unless it seems waaaay off. And today felt like 4 miles, even tho much of it was spent meandering around Lincoln Park Zoo.

But first we parked illegally by Natasha’s office on Northwestern’s campus to make copies of our pledge letters on pink paper. This took a lot longer than seemed necessary, and I began to regret my decision to wear my heavy down coat. (Natasha dubbed me “Nanook,” which wasn’t too far off.)

Copies made, we drove to Clark and Fullerton, parked, and walked...4 miles! Oh, yes we did! Walked through aforementioned zoo, communed with seals, polar bears, beeeyotiful tigers, and other cats of the wild. Saw a few too many gnawed-on bones of indeterminate origin. Even the polar bears were playing with one. But! back to the walking. So, after walking 4 miles (ohyeswedid), we got down to serious business: Lunch. Natasha recommended The Pasta Bowl on Clark, and her recommendation met with great approval and much lip-smacking on my part. Hey, Pasta Bowl! Hire some more waitstaff!

We also found time to shop at Nonpareil and Climate, where Natasha bought a “Queenie” finger puppet (more on that later) and we admired the Nick & Nora pajamas. We figured we could afford one pair between us, so anyone who wants to see a picture of Natasha in the bottoms and me in the tops should e-mail me privately and consider themselves very disturbed.

OK, folks! I probably won’t get any walking in this week, but Dave and I are heading to Key West this SATURDAY!!! where we will spend a (hopefully) sun-drenched week and where I plan to squeeze in some walking when I’m not lounging in the sun and picking the umbrellas out of my drinks. In the meantime, have a happy Valentine’s Day: Eat chocolate, squeeze your loved one, donate to breast cancer research, get a mammogram, be good to yourself!

2-23
I’m back! Back to reality, back to cold(ish) weather, back to work, back to some serious 3-Day training and fundraising.

A week in Key West leaves me amazed and disturbed at my capacity to do absolutely nothing for long stretches of time; however, I did get in a LOT of walking. Dave and I put in at least 4-5 miles each day making our way up and down the main drag of Duval Street. Granted, we were going pretty slowly, but it counts! Then I did my “serious” training walks each of the six full days we were there: by serious I mean I put on my 3-Day shirt and headphones and walked along the beach.

Evidence that the 3-Day is everywhere. As I was walking one morning, headphones blaring, pelicans flapping, searching for my lost shaker of salt, I heard, “Hello? Hello?” Two women were standing nearby, locking up their bikes. “Which 3-Day are you doing?” they asked. Turns out they were from Batavia and Louisville and were doing the Chicago 3-Day, too! Of course, all I could think about was WHY? hadn’t I brought my camera for photo-documentation or WHY? hadn’t I at least brought some paper so I could write down my Web site address. Oh, well. It was very cool to meet them.

Anyway, back to reality, as I said. I walked for one whole hour on Tuesday, and Natasha and I did a whopping hour and a half (4.9 miles???) yesterday. We would have walked longer (honest!) but it was kind of annoyingly cold and we were hungry. Note to selves: next time, eat first. We walked through the not-very-Blair-Witch-like woods of the Bunker Hill Forest Preserve, encountering friendly dogs, cheerful walkers, and a disturbing trio of carefully color-coordinated joggers who reminded us of Easter M&Ms. Our exhausting walk was preceded by a hilarious practice session of lunges and squats (aka “squnges”) and followed up by a huge lunch at Jack’s, dessert at Corner Bakery, and a fairly productive brainstorming session back at my house.

We’ve got some interesting fundraising ideas, which I’ll include here as we implement them. In the meantime, my individual total keeps going up; see my list of wonderful donors and my current total. February is almost over, so it is definitely Go Time! The end of February also signifies another important event: My birthday! What do I want this year??? Click here to find out!

3-10
Curse this weather! Curse it to heck! Arggh. Natty and I were all psyched up to do a 10-mile walk last Saturday, only to have the Cold Miser vent his wrath upon us by dumping snow, ice, and freezing temps on our heads. We were on standby for Sunday, but it was just too darn cold. Hmmmph. C'mon, Ma Nature!

So all this ranting is supposed to prepare you for the fact that I haven’t been doing any serious training. I have been walking and doing my other workout stuff, but my mantra of these past few months: “In March, the serious training starts!” has not quite been fulfilled.

I was willing to walk yesterday during what appeared to be a one-day monsoon season, figuring that getting hit by lightning might increase my donation total, but Natty was strangely unwilling to make this sacrifice. There was a break in the rain at one point, and, noting that the temperature was about 55 degrees, I decided to make a break for it and at least get in an hour of walking. Better than nothing, right? In the time it took me to straighten off my desk and stretch, the temp had dropped from 55 to 33 and it was SNOWING! For crying out loud!

So! Could today be the day? Natty and I are determined to get in a long walk, despite the fact that the current temp is 18 (hey, it’s climbed from 15 in the last hour!) At least it’s sunny and doesn’t seem to be windy. Wish us luck!

Meanwhile, at least the fundraising aspect of the 3-Day is going very well for both of us. CONGRATS!!! to Natty, for already reaching the enviable sum of $1,200!! WOO-HOO!!!

3-16
We did it! USA! USA! An 8-mile walk from Natty’s apartment at Dodge and Dempster to Old Orchard shopping center. Oh, man it was so COLD! And windy. The only thing that kept us going was the thought of stopping at The Gap or Old Navy to buy tights for the way back. Our legs were like brittle sticks of glass! Are you getting the picture? IT WAS COLD! But the good thing about it was, it really forced us (ie, me) to pick up our pace. We made it to Old Orchard in a little over an hour.

Once there, we headed to the Bagel for sustenance in the form of sweet and sour cabbage soup and potato pancakes (Natty) and veggie omelet and bagel (me). We weren’t in too much of a hurry to make our way back; we stopped at Godiva, The Body Shop, H20, Pottery Barn, and considered taking in a movie. No luck in finding tights, but it didn’t matter, as it was MUCH warmer on the way back. Quite pleasant, in fact. We stopped at Burger King for those delicious Hershey sundae pies and ate them in my car while listening to Tenacious D. A great sense of accomplishment!

Almost as great is feeling good the day after. Had a great aerobics class on Monday and Friday, a brisk hour-and-a-half solo walk on Tuesday and today (Saturday), and I’m READY! Bring it on! Okay, not yet. But the warmer weather makes me feel hopeful and energetic.

I’ll be out of town next weekend visiting my dad (the winner of my first of 6 e-bay auctions to raise money for the 3-Day), so no long training walks till the following weekend.

And, I will be training solo for at least a few weeks. Natty is undergoing surgery Monday morning (3-18) to remove a large ovarian cyst. Her doctor is quite sure it’s benign, but prayers and good thoughts are welcome. I know she’s determined to get back to her routine as soon as possible, so check back soon to read about our further 3-Day adventures.

3-26
Natasha and I squeezed in one more walk on Sunday before her surgery. Of COURSE we had a huge breakfast at Lucky Platter first, then a good, brisk 2-hour walk along the lake.

The surgery went fine, and Natty is recovering nicely.

On a similar health-related note, I fell and twisted my ankle in aerobics class on Friday. Now, I realize this isn’t quite as serious as surgery to remove an ovarian cyst, but it had me pretty freaked out nonetheless. Luckily, I could tell within minutes that I hadn’t done anything too serious. Took the weekend off to visit my dad (and hand-deliver his pink ribbon keychain, which was supposed to be documented on film, but my camera battery went dead), but it was back to working out this weekend. With a vengeance! Since Natty will be recovering for at least a few weeks, I have to exercise for both of us. If only the weather would cooperate! I’m hoping to get in a good walk this Sunday.

3-26
HAPPY EASTER! I’m celebrating by cleaning my at-home office, making pink ribbon keychains, and later, walking with my brother. A beautiful day! Finally. Even tho I haven’t gotten in much walking this week, I’ve been pretty active with weights, aerobics, and pilates. OK, so maybe March wasn’t “Get Serious About Walking” month. But April definitely is. There are so many great Chicago walkers out there! I hope to meet ALL of you soon.

I’m not sure when Natty will be up for even a short, sl-o-o-o-w walk, but you can be sure I will be charting her progress for you here in great detail. Go, Natty!

In other fascinating news, this Monday marks the beginning of my new diet. Wish me luck. I really need to lose some weight and gain some energy, so it is quite necessary. I’ll be cutting out sugar (sob), most fats (wah!), yeast (huh?), and pretty much everything that tastes good. That’s why they call it a diet, people! This will definitely impact Natty’s and my eating adventures, but we will not be deterred! We will continue to eat at as many different restaurants as possible, expanding our quest for the perfect meal! Oh, yeah, and we may actually walk, too.

4-8
Finally! A decent walk. Decided on the spur of the moment to walk to Natasha’s house on Saturday. We had planned to walk to Blind Faith Cafe, do some shopping, and some walking, depending on how Natty felt. It took me about an hour and 10 minutes to walk from my house in Skokie to her place in Evanston, and it felt GREAT! I really felt like I earned my huge breakfast at Blind Faith. Then, off for some shopping at Pollywood, Jinx, and The Mexican Store! We had fun trying on clothes and looking at jewelry. The horrifying image looking back at me from the dressing-room mirror encouraged me to stick to my diet (4 pounds so far!!) Luckily, I had already planned on walking home from Natty’s, since she didn’t feel like doing any walking herself. So, I clocked in at least 2 and 1/2 hours. Not great, but not bad.

5-19
Wow! Quite a lapse between journal entries. Here’s a quick run-down of what I’ve been up to:

4-13   My brother Karl joined Natty and me for a lovely walk along Evanston’s lakefront. Tho we were astounded by his choice of footwear and his non-walking attire, he kept up with us quite satisfactorily. Or, should I say, he kept up with me—neither of us were able to keep up with Natty. Did a short solo walk the Thursday before.

4-20   Walked by myself on Monday and Tuesday (in 90-degree heat, I might add), then on Saturday it was back to reality as Natty and I walked ALL THE WAY from her apartment to the Lucky Platter. And back. Yes, about 10 blocks in all. But it was cold! We rewarded ourselves with Belgian chocolates.

4-28   1 short solo walk this week, then Natty came over to my neck of the woods to trek the North Branch bike trail. After a traditionally huge breakfast at Annie’s “Old-Fashion” Pancake House (Mmmm...oatmeal), we astounded ourselves, family, and friends by walking 12 miles in 3 hours—our best effort so far! It was gray and cold-ish, but that didn’t slow us down. Bringing along our CD players helped, too, as I rocked out to System of a Down, and Natty listened to God knows what.

5-5   Walked 2 short solo walks on Wednesday and Thursday, cleaned my house on Friday (which counts as a 25-mile-walk at LEAST), then, after a lovely visit with my dad in Springfield on Saturday, Natty and I did our “city walk” on Sunday. Great day! Sunny, cool-ish, perfect walking weather. We fortified ourselves at Cafe Express on Main Street with muffins and drove to Fullerton/Belmont. Parked the car, and we were off! We walked along the lake to Navy Pier and then back through Natty’s old neighboorhood. Despite the setback of developing huge holes in my shorts (which necessitated a panicked visit to a shop on Navy Pier to BUY (yes, I actually had to buy) safety pins, this was one of our best walks. Saw several other 3-Dayers (YAY!), cute bikers, funny dogs wearing hats, and the cool stained glass exhibition at Navy Pier. Stopped at one of Natty’s favorite Thai places and ate outside. Sooo nice! Then a mad dash back to the car (it suddenly became really cold) and home. Probably did about 12 miles.

5-11  2 short walks this week, then...(moment of respectful silence) the most horrific day of our lives. Aware of the fact that rain might be imminent, Natty and I set out on Saturday, full of hope and resolve. The skies were angry that day, my friends, and we were soon to feel the brunt of Mother Nature’s wrath. After walking only about an hour and a half north along Evanston’s lakefront, the heavens opened up. Okay, perhaps I’m exaggerating here. It started to sprinkle. But the sprinkling soon turned to full-fledged rain. Cold, horrible rain. Windy rain. Wet rain—yes, I know rain is usually wet, but this particular rain seemed somehow wetter than your average benign rain. In other words, this was evil rain. And we were caught in it. Taking solace in my king-sized Snickers bar, I bent my head and tried to make the best of it as we swiftly turned around and headed toward the shelter of Dr. Wax. Enraged by the store’s new policy NOT to preview CDs, we stormed (heh, “stormed,” get it?) out and back into the rain. Our plan was to head to the police station and see if any of Natty’s police buddies were free to give us a ride back to her house. I guess I’m happy to say they all had better things to do, even if that left us with the option of calling a cab. Ugh. What a horrible day. Even a meal at Thai Sookdee (do NOT like their new location) couldn’t improve our moods. I later found out that Susi and her merry band of Oak Park Streetwalkers actually stuck it out and walked 20 miles that day. Good on yer, Susi! (and by “Good on yer,” of course I mean, “You are crazy.”) The next day, Sunday, evil rain continued to fall from the sky and ruin our training plans, so we went to the McGaw YMCA, where my buddy Cedric let Natty (non-member) in for free. There we attacked with gusto the treadmill and elliptical cross-trainers, ending up with a quick weight-lifting and situp session; a workout of almost an hour and a half. Not bad; certainly better than the workout of zero hours I had originally planned on. That evening I celebrated Mother’s Day AND our 12-year anniversary at Nonno Pino, where all the calories I burned off were quickly ingested in the form of lasagna, bread, salad, and tiramisu.

Which brings me to the present!
5-19
See, I haven’t exactly been sitting around doing nothing. In addition to as much walking as the weather permitted us, I’ve been working in my garden, doing aerobics and weights, and the occasional Pilates session. However, I don’t think I was quite prepared for yesterday. After a week of no exercise (too much work), I called Natty bright and early and informed her that we were walking all day. After she figured out who the hell was calling her at 7:00 on a Saturday morning, she rather grumpily agreed. The Weather Channel predicted cool temps and clouds, which, tho disappointing, was still better than rain. We set out from Natty’s at around 8:30, each with several layers of clothing. We walked from her place to Crawford, Crawford to Glenview, Glenview to Harms Road, then took the bike trail all the way to the Chicago Botanic Gardens. YAY! It turned out to be a gorgeous day. The path was great except for a horrible muddy patch and the fact that, for a long stretch, we seemed to be the only people alive. When we finally saw an ice-cream truck, we thought it might be a mirage. We were running low on water, so we were quite happy that, in addition to the usual fare, the ice-cream man had bottles of water and! New Gatorade Strawberry Ice! We had tried filling up our bottle from one of those hand-operated pumps, but the water tasted like metal. Yuck. I’m still tasting that stuff whenever I cough. It eventually got so warm we had to abandon some of our layers in a trash can along the road. Stopped for a brief rest on a picnic table to get some sun, which energized us enough to perform rousing renditions of Les Miserables tunes (“You know nothing of JAVERT!”). Before we knew it (4 hours later), we were at the Gardens.

Tho we had snacked on trail mix, an apple, and a Snickers bar, we really hadn’t eaten enough for the amount of walking we’d done. We felt it, too. So we had no choice but to spend almost $15 each for lunch at the cafeteria. It was good, tho, as was SITTING, as was the sun. Sigh. Very nice. We were serenaded by trumpeting swans just below the deck of the outdoor tables. We spent some time looking at the tulips, then headed back, this time down Greenbay Road, then Sheridan Road. Man, that is one long road. We passed last years’ Glencoe cheering station, which gave me courage to continue on. But man, oh, man, my feet hurt. I’m not going to dwell too much on that here; suffice it to say, I was in a bit of pain. We stopped at a 7-11 for some baby powder (yes, I was unprepared—I hadn’t brought any foot powder or vaseline), which helped. Had to take a lot of breaks along the way. As good as sitting down felt, getting back up was murder. At one point, the sight of my prone body lying deathly still close to the curb elicited concern from a passing Wilmette cop. “Is everything all right?” We explained that we were fine, but now I realize I could’ve saved the $7 bucks I spent only moments later on a cab by insisting that the cop take me immediately to the nearest hospital. For by that time, I knew I was done. It was 6:00, my legs and feet were killing me, and I wanted to be home. Once we got to the Bahá’í Temple, Natty called a cab, and we were whisked away. Oh. My. God. So tired. So sore. So happy to be home. We ended up walking about 8 hours, 22 miles. We accomplished our goal of walking all day. Hooray! Unfortunately, I had a few blisters and a mysteriously bleeding toe. Other than that, no permanent damage.

6-4
Yikes! Only 10 more days. Are we ready? We are! Maybe. Yes. No, really, I think so. Or not. We’ll see. The Sunday after our 23-mile walk (see above) started with good intentions and not-too sore muscles. We could’ve walked that day, but just ran out of time. Instead we had breakfast together and commented on how surreal the day before seemed. Despite feeling slightly hungover (no, not from alcohol, just from a strenuous and challenging day), we were encouraged that at least we were able to stand upright and even walk to Annie’s Pancake House. Having done at least one really long walk makes me feel a lot better. We will make it!

The week of 5-20 was great in terms of working out. I went to aerobics 3 times and walked twice. Sunday was a gorgeous day, and we took advantage of it by walking to Navy Pier and back. Sunburn! A big, heavy lunch at Pasta Bowl! Probably did about 8 miles. On Monday, we walked from Natty’s to Plaza del Lago. Another beautiful day. Disappointed that Convito Italiano wasn’t open, but we got sandwiches at Jewel and ate outside. 15 miles, I reckon. Yay!

After 3 years of e-mailing, on Wednesday I finally got together with Susi at Blind Faith Cafe in Evanston. It was great to meet her and chat about past and future 3-Days. She and her father are crewing on Pit Stop 4, so walkers, be sure to say hello as you load up on bananas and bagels.

On Thursday, I got a cortisone shot to help the inflammation and pain in my big toe. Despite intense (and unexpected) pain from the shot itself, I think it might be helping. The doc also suggested prescription-strength ibuprofen a week before the walk. Surgery on both feet is imminent.

Natty and I walked a quick 2-hours on Sunday (toe felt fine!) Today is Tuesday, and we are eagerly awaiting a break in the monsoon to see if we can get in a walk. No more long ones, obviously, but maybe another 2-hour walk today and one over the weekend.

6-12
Day Zero is tomorrow!!! I’m soooo excited. I feel great--ready in every way. A little nervous about the number of walkers and hoping for decent weather, but otherwise...I AM READY!

Only short walks since my last entry and today; our longest being 2 hours on Sunday, a gorgeous day.

Saw my chiropractor yesterday and will see my acupuncturist tonight. Nothing can stop me now!!

Well, it’s been lots of fun keeping this journal. I will TRY to update it as soon after the walk as possible. As with the past 2 years, I’ll keep notes along the way. Thanks for reading, and I’ll be back soon! Wish me luck!!!

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