So what was this all about? A friend from church, Dani Gilbert, was diagnosed a couple of months ago with Colon Cancer. This has obviously been a life changing event in their family, and an eye opener for the rest of the ward. We have watched her go off to Anchorage every couple of weeks for chemo treatments, and have prayed for her and her family. In May several of us ran a triathlon, something that Dani had been training for but was not able to do. We had a big representation from the ward, all wearing bright green shirts with the logo Tri for Dani. That event had been a lot of fun, especially doing it with so many friends cheering each other on. After completing the triathlon we all were geared up and excited to do something else. A 24 hour relay sounded great to me.
And so it began. Dani organized the team “Tri 4 Dani”. Many people got to work on fundraising ideas. I was slow in that aspect. I have never been good at fundraising. I can’t ask people for money, and I really had no ideas. Another friend, Audrey, organized a bake sale; which we were all glad to contribute to. Who doesn’t love to bake up treats for a good cause?
The big day dawned, with only a partly cloudy sky, and excitement running high. I still was not quite clear on how everything worked, but walking all night somehow appealed to me, so that was the time slot I signed up for. I showed up to find ort booth around 5:00 pm Friday night to bring the tables. I say booths set up all around the track, each one had something to sell, raffle, or auction in the name of the cause. There were already a lot of people there, but I didn’t have time to stay. From the sound of it I wish that I had for the kick off ceremony. But alas, I had found my fundraising idea. I would decorate mini cakes to be in a silent auction on Saturday. As I would be out walking all night I had planned on getting these done earlier so that I would be able to go to bed, but things never work out as I plan and I had to run home to complete the cakes. I had already spent several hours already, but still had a lot of work to do.
In the end I think the time spent was worth it. Plus I got some good practice making and working with fondant.
By 9:30 I was headed back to the field to deliver the finish cakes and then was supposed to hurry home and straight to bed. That didn’t quite work out either. I brought Chad down with me to see everything that was going on. At 10:00 at night lots of people were still going strong, the d.j. had the music blaring, and the track was full of people walking. At our booth it had become a ward activity. There were lots of people from church there, and other coastie friends that had joined the team. We also had several things going to raise money, popcorn, hot chocolate, face painting, hair up dos, bottles of water, soda, and strings and bead so that people could count their laps.
The kids had also come with us, and were excited to see many of their friends there. We had our own little tent village for the people that had decided to camp overnight. The kids really wanted to stay, so at 10:30 we were rushing home to grab the tent and sleeping bags. Chad would stay home with Kaylin while I took the rest of the kids camping. There was till plenty of day light left at 11:00 to get the tent set up and attempt to have kids in bed by midnight. That did not work either as they were too wired to stay in sleeping bags, and couldn’t resist the pull of popcorn.
At midnight was the luminary ceremony as people bought luminaries in honor of loved one lost to cancer. During the midnight hour no one was to be out walking. I spent that time in our tent with other night owls talking and laughing, and mostly trying not to fall asleep. I find cake decorating for hours at a time can really take it out of me. I had finally threatened the kids that I would take them home to sleep if they did not stay in their sleeping bags, so for the time all was quiet.
At 1:00 am I began. My good friend Ambee Hill signed up to walk with me. Walking all night long alone really would not have been any fun. We kept a nice easy pace, not wanting to get completely worn out. And we had our string of beads, collecting another bead each time we came past our team tent. I told Ambee I wanted to get 10 miles. Does that sound like to much? It sounded reasonable to me. That is just over 3 miles an hour for the 3 hour time slot we had signed up for. But did we really want to maintain that kind of pace for 3 hours? Not really, but 10 miles still sounded impressive. During our time we talked about Primary, she is the President, I am the councilor. We talked about families, and kids, and husbands, and workouts. Around 3:00 we were joined by a girl from another team, and we enjoyed a morning of walking with friends. The weather was nice, with was not windy, and we were not very chilly as we kept moving.
We had originally signed up to walk from 1 am to 4am, but as 4:00 came we felt good to keep going, and we were at 4 miles and wanted to get to 10. We watched as each lap become lighter, and we hoped to see the sun come up. Alas, hope of a brilliant sunrise were dashed around 4:30 when the cloud gathered and let loose the rain we all know so well. Just a half hour to go and we looked forward to the hot chocolate waiting in our tent, warm dry sleeping bags, and some sleep.
We made it, wet but feeling accomplished. 4 hours of walking, 10 miles down and time for some sleep. Sleep did not last long as the d.j. cranked up the music at 6:00 to wake up everyone on the track. By 7:30 the kids were all up so we gathered up the wet sleeping bags, grabbed some doughnuts from Safeway and headed home, where we knew it would be dry and warm.
After getting a couple of hours sleep we loaded up all the kids and the stroller and was back at the field for another hour of walking. The silent auction closed and I got some gratification when I saw the demand on my cakes. I was a little worried how they would pass the night in the tent with the rain coming down. Then we began taking down tents and packing up. The kids had a blast running around with friends and the excitement in the air was uplifting.
Then it was home to spend several more hours, not sleeping, but writing a talk for the next day. I had been called on Thursday night and asked to speak, so Saturday night was really the first and last chance I had to prepare. I think that it went well despite my lack of sleep and writing in a state close to delirium. Soon it too was accomplished and the weekend was over.
Here are some random pictures Alyssa took during all the festivities. Enjoy!
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