Everyone Deserves A Lifetime: The 3-Day, Day Three

Yay we finished!

The last day was the easiest as far as walking, because we did not have to technically walk 20 miles on the route. Our walking in camp and at the pit stops added up so that we go surprised and only did 15.3 on the route the last day! (praise Jesus for real) This was the best surprise ever. We woke up early at 6:15AM and packed up our tent and got breakfast. We had an awesome dinner the night before by the way of some grilled chicken for Madison. They also announced at dinner before that the oldest walked was 76! I was inspired so much by that it amazed me. I'm getting super off topic so back to the story; As usual we walked really far and were exhausted. We had left at about 7:40AM When we came to the 58.9 mile marker I started to feel my knee giving out. I have a torn meniscus in both knees but got cleared to walk. It was horrible. I stopped at the medical tent and the RN told me she thought I had a torn ACL based on my pain levels when she moved around my leg. She told me I should be bused to the finish line. I refused! How could I get bused when I was so close to the end! I didn't come the whole way for nothing. I signed a consent to finish and had her wrap my knee and hobbled to the finish line, which we found out later was not really the finish line at 1:30PM. We waited for everyone to finish before crossing the official finish line, which was pretty far away from the pretend line by the way! We enjoyed closing ceremony where I, as usual, cried when they talked about the survivors and people who have passed. They mentioned that 99% of breast cancer cases are now caught before death which is astonishing! In honor or survivors who walked we held up one shoe (picture below) and cheered them on. It was incredible and such a great experience over all. Even though people still have the disease I feel like the 3-day makes people aware by saying "wow why would you walk 60 miles?" or "hmm maybe I should go get a mammogram" it is such an amazing event and anyone who wants to participate should put it on their bucket list because you CAN do it, I mean we did. Yes, Madison is super fit, but hey I did it and  that is amazing! Afterwards we went to the USF Telefund and talked to some of the people who sponsored us and told them about the race and enjoyed an awesome Carrabba's dinner (as promised ;) ) Thank you all so much for supporting us through this journey and encouraging us along the way! We really appreciate it! I will upload the videos when I get a chance because they are on Madison's phone not mine!

 

Just Get Back Up When It Knocks You Down: The 3-Day, Day Two

So today has been insane. The Keri Hilson song "Knocks You Down" is how I feel. Not like emotionally how her song is but yesterday we got knocked down with a ten foot pole (not literally of course) and today we had to get back up. We were so exhausted we forgot to take a video this morning (whoops) but I promise we will take one tonight. When we woke up, we weren't quite as sore as we had imagined (Tylenol helped with that one). We left camp at 8:15AM and went on our first path. I think I was pretty good until the lunch spot, where once again we had delicious Panera bread sandwiches. Madison as usual wanted a chicken breast and so I offered to take him out to dinner tomorrow night at Carabba's as his reward for doing this with me, he surprisingly declined (I'm assuming you can guess why, something about not wanting me to spend money ;) sounds like him huh?). After lunch (which was the 11 mile marker so a little over halfway) we walked over a lot of bridges. I have never felt so sick in my entire life. The wind from the lovely hurricane on the other coast made me sway back and forth causing me to become super nauseous. It was terrible. But I do have to thank God for blessing us with NO rain at all so far this weekend (knock on wood). Once we hit the last pit stop (number four) we hit mile 16.8 and I wanted to give up so badly but we were less than four miles from the end. I had to turn on some J. Biebs to keep me going at that point because lets just say every time I had to burp I threw up in my mouth. It was lovely. Madison on the other hand wanted to run back just so he could crash on the grass at camp when we hit that 20 mile marker. We both have never been exhausted in our lives but we crossed that 20 mile line at 3:01 beating our time yesterday but a long shot because we left later today also. We also were numbers 80 and 81 today out of 1,000 people! Yesterday we were numbers 211 and 212. We came back and guess what the first thing he said was? "OJ? I'm going to take you up on Carabba's tomorrow night" (I knew he would). I am not going to post any pictures today because my phone is about twenty feet from me and to be honest I love you guys but I cannot get up and then walk back over. So I will do my final post tomorrow night when we get home in Tampa. Thanks so much for blogging with me and let me know what you guys think so far about our journey. I promise tomorrow the videos will be worth reading all of these. 

Love you all xoxo,

-Olivia

What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger: The 3-Day, Day One

Wow,

So where even to begin? Let's just say the song by Kelly Clarkson "Stronger" describes how I feel about today. Starting off the day we have hilarious videos of ourselves before the race on the way to Sand Key Park in Clearwater this morning that describe our mood beforehand perfectly (I will upload these when I get home Sunday night as promised!) The first thing that we did was the morning stretch, which I now know that I should have done way more of. After they had people come out who were survivors and family members of those who have passed. I told myself I wasn't going to cry, I'm guessing you probably can figure out that thirty seconds into the ceremony I was in tears. It was very inspirational and made me think of my mom and our journey this past year. We started actually walking at 8:04AM and we had different checkpoints along the way, which I will attach pictures of. Everyone was so encouraging along the way, which Madison and I both agree helped way more than we had originally thought. People from the area came out and played music, gave words of inspiration, and handed out things from bubble gum to water bottles to cold ice packs. Some people even had sun tan lotion spots so that we didn't completely burn. When we finished our 20 miles it was 3:19PM and I had never been so happy to see a bus to camp. Any area of my legs and back were throbbing with pain and I wasn't sure I was going to make it the last couple of miles. It definitely is not a race for sissies, but what shocked me the most? The fact that people in wheelchairs, braces, and people over the age of 60 were walking the ENTIRE way. It amazes me how much patience and dedication they have. So far it has been exhausting, but nothing less than an amazing experience. I will hopefully be back on here writing about day two tomorrow evening! Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers, you guys are awesome :)!

Us at 6:30AM waiting to start! (It was chilly outside)

At the 11 mile marker for lunch! Thanks Panera Bread!

The sign when we hit the 20 mile marker!

Hello fellow bloggers,

First official post woohoo! I wanted to start this blog off with a topic that has been on my mind pretty much non-stop since I started getting really into music back in two thousand and seven: alternative bands. So many people claim they love alternative and hate "mainstream" music, yet they can't name a single non mainstream song. This most likely is because they haven't been exposed to real alternative music, or anything that isn't played on the radio. I remember the first time I heard a song by Mayday Parade my freshman year with my still best friend Gretchen. The song "When I Get Home You're So Dead" from Mayday Parade's album A Lesson in Romantics changed the way I saw music. No longer was I strapped to the constantly repeating playlist of our local radio station, I was able to open up and branch out to new music. From Mayday Parade I was able to find bands like Go Radio, Owl City, Cute Is What We Aim For, The Maine, All Time Low, Hey Monday, Metro Station, Neon Trees, Jack's Mannequin, and 3oh!3 before they were even well known to the general public and got put on that list of horrendous replays that occurs on pretty much every nearby radio station. Now, I am not hating on mainstream music at all because anyone who knows me knows that I love a good Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, or Nicki Minaj playlist anyday ;) but what I am saying is have you ever branched out and looked at other types of music out there? If not I encourage you to look up any of the bands I listed, I promise you will fall in love with more than one of them like I did. And on the other side of that when you find an artist you like (even if it is Justin Bieber) try looking at their old music and new music, not just what is on the radio. I was pleasantly surprised with Justin Bieber's new album Believe that came out not too long ago. "Right Here" feat. Drake is one of my new favorite songs! Taylor Swift's new album Red came out Monday and I have not heard it personally but only hear good things about it, which doesn't surprise me since her last album Speak Now is pretty much one of the best albums I have ever heard. If you get the chance I highly recommend Mayday Parade's self entitled album (which is also their newest one). It only took me two weeks to memorize every song that's on it. I would love to hear anyone's opinion on favorite artists (I am always up to give anyone a try), mainstream vs. not opinions, or just anything else you feel like saying. One rule: don't hit the backspace button!

Until next time,

-Olivia