Here's the rundown of the Sand Diego 3-Day walk on November 10-12, 2006. I have a couple dozen excuses about why I'm so late writing about it... but I won't bore you with them :-)

The walk was fantastic! Five THOUSAND people participated in the 60 mile journey as walkers. Most of the walkers were 20 or 30 year old women. Even so, there were lots of participants outside that age range and quite a few men.

The walk began at the Del Mar Fairgrounds with an inspirational send off speech and then we were herded out through the gates and along the back entrance of the fairgrounds to the road. I saw smiling faces everywhere. My teammate and I seemed to be walking with some of the fastest, though we were passed once or twice.

We had only been on the walk about 15 minutes when we saw our first official 3-Day support vehicle on the side of the road to cheer the walkers along. Brashly written on the side of the van was the logo "You're limpin' we're pimpin." A peak inside the van revealed red velvet and fringe covering every surface. Disco music was blaring from the speakers. In the front of the vehicle the driver (dressed in a red velvet suit, large red hat, animal print shirt, and lots of gold jewelry) was dancing away to the disco and waving to each walker that passed.

Less than an hour into the walk we saw our first glimpse of the Pacific. We'd been told that we wouldn't have that much of a view on the first day, but we were right on the beach. We could also see the one of the first pitstops, also right on the beach... and we could see the dreaded hill at Torrey Pines. My walking partner wanted to avoid the pit stops as much as possible, however I took a look at the start of the hill and decided that a refill on the drink was a good idea... and a stop at the snack bar... and maybe a restroom stop as well. Anything to procrastinate a bit. Reagan was kind, but after 10 minutes she sweetly told me to get going. And off we went up the hill at Torrey Pines. It wasn't as bad as I though. I kept moving off into the shade. About 5 minutes into the climb I realized how much of a mistake it was to wear pants and a jacket during the walk. (I shed the jacket quickly and stuck to shorts the next two days.)