Day 3: The final 17 miles

Catch up on our 3 Day journey with Day 1 and Day 2.

Day 3.  The last day of our 3 day adventure.  I have to say that I was sad for this day to come.  Yes, my legs and my feet were hurting and I was exhausted, but it was such an amazing experience that I just didn't want it to end.  I knew that in just a few short hours we would have completed our journey and after months and months of training, it would suddenly be over.

Once again, 5am came way too early!  It was still dark out when we packed up our tent and our gear.  We grabbed a bite to eat (literally a bite because we knew that the pit stop would only be 3 miles in and I would most likely grab a granola bar whether I was hungry or not, so might as well eat it while I was hungry!)  We weren't able to get on the buses to take us to the drop off point about 8 miles away until 6am, so we had some time to snap some pictures.

Our inspiration :)

We hopped on the buses and drove for about 20 minutes to jump off again by 6:30 and start walking.  The first two days, we kept a pretty good pace.  We're naturally fast walkers, I don't think I can go slow if I tried (which is really hard when walking with kinders!)  However, on this last day, we went slow.  Between my knee and Andrew's shin splints, it felt like we were crawling some times.

We finally made it to the Chicago River and had the opportunity to walk along it for a few miles.

Then we got to walk through the Lincoln Park Zoo, well part of it.  No animals, which would have been so cool!

We hopped back on the lakeshore path and spent the next few hours trying not to get run over by bikes. 

Any true Illinoisan/Chicagoan will always know this as the Sears Tower.

The Buckingham Fountain.

The Adler Planetarium, the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum

The Field Museum

The Shedd Aquarium

We did it!  Just 2 miles after passing the Adler, Shedd and Field museums we made it to Soldier Field (Bear down!).  We met Andrew's parents outside of the stadium and then headed in to sit down.
First and foremost was getting some ice.

The crew and volunteers all lined up to cheer as people walked in.

The closing ceremony set-up.  We rolled in to the Stadium at about 2pm and Closing Ceremony didn't start until 4:30, so we had quite a bit of time to kill.  Most of it was spent sitting outside talking to Andrew's parents.

By 4:00 the Stadium was getting pretty crowed.

And I had to get a picture of the field.  I may live in Wisconsin, but sorry, I'll never be a Packers fan.

Everyone lining up to cheer in the last walkers.

Lining up for our final walk into the ceremony.

All 1200 of the walkers walking in.

As the survivors walked, everyone held up a shoe in honor and support. 

It was kind of amazing to see.

And to close the event, they rose the final flag.  Of course, there wasn't any wind, so you couldn't see what the flag actually said (and to be honest, I can't remember).

After the ceremony, we hobbled to the car and drove back to Geneva.  Andrew had to work the next day, but after 60 miles in 3 days, there was no way that we were going to sit in a car for 2 hours to drive back to Verona.  We grabbed some pizza and then crashed at our separate houses (that's right, even though we're married, we don't stay together when we go back to Geneva.)

And after walking 60 miles in 3 days, it took a few days to fully recover and be able to walk without limping.  Andrew ended up coming home from work early that Monday and laid on the couch all afternoon because his legs hurt so much.  I don't even want to think about how we would have felt if we didn't train at all!

All in all, this was the best experience.  Yes it took months of training, a lot of our time, and a lot of fundraising, but I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.  In fact, the very next day I was ready to go do it all over again.  I think I talked for about a week straight about how much I want to do it next year.

If you ever have the opportunity to participate in the Susan G. Komen 3 Day Walk for breast cancer, DO IT!  Don't let the chance pass you by.  It will be the most amazing experience of your life.