50K - It wasn't THAT bad

I say that as my legs are aching as I sit on my couch writing this post. Well another Challenge Walk is over for me - my 3^rd now. And it was a great experience - even with sore feet, sore legs and aching hips. And the reason why it was great is because I was once again able to do it all. And I was joined by probably over 30 others who have MS as well as 450 family & friends who don't have MS.

I have said this before to my support group and unfortunately I only had 1 taker. This is an event everyone with MS should attend. It is such an uplifting weekend for everyone, no matter how the person is involved - walker, crew or volunteer. It is inspiring to a cheering volunteer to see almost 500 people willing to raise $1,500 (and more in most cases) and walk that distance all to end MS. It is inspiring as a walker to realize that he or she achieved the amazing feat of walking that many miles. It is inspiring to everyone who comes to the candlelight service to hear the stories of why a person is on the challenge walk.

There are three instances that stand out for me this weekend. First and foremost, my husband joined me on the walk - a first for him (he is a biker and has done 16 MS Bike tours). And as a surprise to me, he spoke as a representative of those walking for a spouse who has MS. It was a beautiful speech and very moving to me. (And here I was thinking I was going to have to drag him out to the candlelight service.) Tonight at dinner he was talking about how he was going to train next year and be the first person at the finish so he can then sleep.

The second thing memorable about the weekend was my walk with a MS friend I have known now for a number of years. It was her first Challenge Walk and I am so happy for her because she made it 30 miles ~ 48.5ishK (I am not very good at metric conversions, but I am pretty close) and had her kids not been waiting for her at the overnight, she probably would have walked all 50K. She was my buddy today because both she & I were walking slowly - she kept telling me to go on, but I was perfectly happy to stay at her pace. She had woken up with Vertigo that morning but by the time we had left, it had gone away so she figured she would try to walk to the first rest stop at least. Then when she still felt ok, it was the next rest-stop. Before you knew it, we were counting down the blocks to the pre-finish and she knew she was going to make it the whole way. She was so proud of herself and was talking about what she was going to do differently next year. I was very proud of her accomplishment.

Lastly, there was Joy (not her real name). She was joined by 5 of her friends since elementary school. Joy and another of the 6 friends have MS. Joy, however is wheelchair bound for the most part. But for this walk, she walked the first part of the walk and then her teammates pushed her in the wheelchair the rest of the walk. They PUSHED her, it wasn't an electric wheelchair. When the team arrived at the pre-finish, a majority of the walkers were already there eating lunch - all spread out at the base of the Washington Monument. When the team arrived, everyone - EVERYONE, stopped eating and if they could, gave her a standing (and in lots of cases) seating ovation. It is stories like these that make me want to do it again.