(Melissa's Monday) She'll be coming around the mountain when she comes!

Stone Mountain to be exact. Oh- and I never knew I was scared of stairs....until walking down them after I had walked 19 and 16 miles in one weekend!! Oh yeah, you read me right. A total of THIRTY FIVE MILES! I was amazed that I even had it in me.

Now for all of those who know me, I'll start with answering your questions before they can even be asked:

1.) Did you eat???

YES! I ate.

2.) You can't afford to loose weight. Did you?

No, I did not loose any weight. As a matter of fact, I came home 3.5 pounds heavier. REALLY.

3.) How is that even possible???!!

Because of water intake and constant eating to maintain nutrients, fluids and calories....yep...I probably ate more than my entire pregnancy in one weekend. PLus, most weight is lost through muscle confusion, meaning you need to train in other ways such as cardio and other various forms of fitness to loose weight quickly.

4.) How do you feel?

Umm... About like my legs are going to fall off. Literally. My feet are actually fine, but the hills from walking are what hurt me the most.

To preface the story for full meaning, I'll explain a little.When you sign up for the 3-Day, they send you out this wonderful packed FULL of all kinds of information to get you started. Inside this packet is what will become one of your most prized possessions: your 3-Day lanyard and badge. It's a necklace/ID that they provide you with that have all of your goals to be successful in your walk and fundraising. Each goal has sticker. Each time you meet that goal, you get to place it on the special place for it on the badge. The first couple are pretty simple. For example, logging onto your 3-day website or reaching your 1st $500 in donations.

For me these little stickers have become part of my life. Since March, I have slowly added them to my badge. Each time, I would look at the sheet where each little sticker that was not placed on the badge and wonder if I would have the chance to move them over to it. At some points, the 10 mile sticker looked like it was sooo hard...and the 18/15 mile sticker looked impossible! The $2,200 raised sticker was laughed at nervously and the online check-in sticker was haunting me.

So, when I tell you that this morning as my husband drove, I quietly took my badge out and placed my last sticker for the 18/15 mile walk onto my badge and smiled you have to understand this was a HUGE milestone. I took my fingers and rubbed the stickers down, to make sure those things were going to stick. After all, I worked hard for those suckers!

As I pressed the last one down, I caught my husband glancing over at me. He chuckled to himself and then asked, "What are you doing?" I replied that I had just put my last sticker on. How does he reply?

"You're what?"

Enters the laughter. Uncontrollably. I mean, I really think he thought I had lost it! Here I was having this wonderful, meaningful moment and he thought I had gone nuts. As I tried to explain it, he only looked at me more wildly, so I decided to just end my explanation with, "I guess it's a you have to be there moment.. but it's exclusive to 3-Day participants only." He shrugs and the moment is over.

Looking back, I always thought that choirs would jump up singing "Alleluia" when I finished with my badge of goals. On this day none of it happened. Instead, the feeling of knowing that I can do something that I never thought I could physically do was ten times better than any chorus of alleluias.

Okay, now that's out of the way...I have to tell you about the most amazing weekend! Jennifer, Angela and I decided to go to an overnight camp out training walk at Stone Mountain this past weekend. It was monumental for us. Not just because we walked 18 miles one day and 15 the next, but for many it was confirmation that we had accomplished one of the hardest milestones in the 3-day experience next to the actual 60 miles of the walk.

Angela was in charge of food and....well let's just say I think everyone that came would invite her on ANY camping trip. I'm pretty sure that we ate better than anyone else out there on the campground AND we were in tents! We had yummy pepper jack quesadillas, black bean & corn salsa with Mexican rice on Saturday afternoon and canned biscuits eggs, country ham and maple link sausages on Sunday morning. Keep in mind we all camped in tents with no electricity. In addition to these great meals with trimmings, she even made us "snack packs" for when we were walking! They had bananas, pringles, trail mix, tuna, pepperonis, slim jim's, crackers...I could go on and on.....she just out did herself! Thank you so much for putting so much thought into everything, Angela. :)

I learned one really neat thing about Jennifer. This girl NEVER complains. She is wonder woman...Seriously! Here she is twenty something weeks pregnant and walks WAY faster than me! Truly amazing. Oh...and she's a GREAT tent partner. No snoring, no moving, cuddling...nothing. She's perfect! I just hope that she can say the same about me... ;)

As for my body, let's just say that I think I found parts of my body that I didn't even know existed. How? Because they hurt! After walking our 19 mile walk on Saturday, I felt great. I couldn't believe it. We went to the laser show, came back and made smores and sang a silly shark song(Don't even get me started...it's one that is really cute and stays in your head FOREVER-Thanks Michelle Buice!). THEN CAME SUNDAY MORNING. I woke feeling pretty good and just laid there enjoying all the great sounds of nature...then I tried to move my legs- PAIN!!! It felt like they were both broken and my kids were sitting on them. It was horrible! The thought of walking all over again seemed impossible!

Thankfully, I'm one of those types of people that just hates being left out and told myself that I would walk just ONE circle around the mountain (which is 5 miles, btw). A couple of extra strength Tylenol and one circle around the mountain later, I was a new woman! It hurt, but the thought of the four women in my neighborhood that have or had cancer, my mother, and my great aunt who passed from it and I thought, Who am I to complain? They never had the chance to sit one round out! Suddenly, I had strength that is unexplainable. Amazing, isn't it?

Well, it's heading on midnight and I think I need to go get some rest. Believe it or not, but tomorrow's training schedule calls for 5 miles. Make sure that you read next week's post with me. I'll have information on how you can come be a part of our cheering section at the 3-Day and if you're unable to make that, how you can write letters of encouragement to my team mates and I so that we can read them at the actual walk.

Until then, keep thinking pink and living life!!
Melissa