Day 1: 21.3 miles

As we walked through the streets of Chicago and its neighboring cities, I thought about how I would even begin to write this post.  It's hard to describe this incredible event and all of the emotions that come with it.  I still can't believe that we did it and I can't wait to do it again.

Let's start from the beginning.  And that began when it was still dark out and the sun was sleeping.  After Andrew came home from work on Thursday, Aug. 9th, we made the drive back to Geneva to drop off our little ladies with my dad and Sam's wonderful girlfriend, Lauren.  My mother had conveniently booked her trip to Seattle over that very weekend, I think she did it to get out of taking care of her grand-dogs!  After a carbo-load of Chipotle, we headed to a hotel in Northbrook with Andrew's parents so we would be all ready to go for the big day.

Well 4:15AM came way too soon and it was hard to drag my butt out of bed since I knew I wouldn't be sleeping in one for the next three days.  We quickly got ready and headed out to the care to drive to Northbrook Mall.  Unfortunately, the weatherman said that there would be lake-effect rain in our forecast for the morning.  BUMMER.

We dropped our gear off at the trucks and went to get our lanyards to hold our credentials for the weekend.  Then we played the waiting game.  And who knew that it would be so darn chilly in the middle of August!

 After waiting around for about 30 minutes, the opening ceremony started.

 Walkers walked out holding banners of why we walk and who we walk for.  They would walk us out at the start.

 Just as the ceremony ended, the skies opened up and we got a little bit of sun :)

 We made our way through the Botanic Gardens.

 And got rained on a little bit more.  Thank goodness for ponchos!

 Every 3 or 4 miles we had a pit stop to grab a bite to eat, a drink, and stretch a bit.  These broke up the walk so much that it just flew by!

 Pink firetruck!  All of the towns were so supportive.

 Day 1 done!  We actually walked over 20 miles, 21.3 to be exact!  We walked from 6:30am to 2pm.  By then we were ready for some rest and relaxation!

 But first, we had to set up our tent.  Pretty in pink :)

 "Main Street" had all of the fun stuff :)  New Balance shopping area with tv, computers for checking email, back massage chairs, awesome.

 Look at all of those pink tents!

 At 6:45pm, the final walker made it to camp.  We had a big celebration to welcome that last walker to camp.

 Raising the flag that says "One Day Closer to the End of Breast Cancer."

We spent the rest of the night eating dinner (walking 20 miles makes you hungry!  I won't refute rumors that we might have gone through the food line more than once).  We were off to bed early so we could wake up bright and early the next morning to start walking by 6:30am.















Stay tuned for Day 2!