Avon Walk for Breast Cancer 2014—We Survived!

Hi everyone,

We finished. We are all limping around the house and are rather sore, but we finished. The Avon Walk for Breast Cancer 2014 was a great experience, and we are happy and proud that we did it. Perhaps training would have been a good idea? Patty’s idea of training was to get a pink pedicure the day before the walk.

Everyone else thought that their regular high-level workouts would carry them through. We were all wrong. Walking is walking and you need to do a lot of it to get ready. We didn’t. Ouch.

We now have a huge appreciation for the Avon walk, which of course we were familiar with, but didn’t REALLY know what it was like. It’s supportive, encouraging, touching, a huge fundraiser and PINK. Let’s just say that the Mayer family seriously under-represented the color pink. Everyone else made up for it by going overboard with pink tutus, pink boas, pink socks, pink beards, pink jewelry, pink hair and pink shoes. We did sleep in pink TENTS however, as Avon provided those, and we were supplied with a few necklaces, leis and bracelets along the route.

There was an incredible amount of support for the walkers, which we needed, appreciated, and enjoyed. There were people manning the food booths (including our favorite car-rally themed ‘Tit Stop’), there were people driving around in decorated vans and cars, playing music, shouting encouraging words, and offering help to those who needed it.  The “Dudes for Boobs” were out in full force, as were the “Hookers for Hooters”. Our favorite group was the motorcycle guys on their pink motorcycles who directed traffic , helped us cross streets safely, and were quite entertaining. They knew just when to be around the corner rocking out with their air guitars to bring smiles to our faces. Not sure why one man on the route showed up about six different times with a waving Eeyore, but he was enthusiastic and made us smile. We’ve never high-fived a bulldog before, but yesterday it just felt right. Dozens and dozens of people along the route were there just to sincerely say, “thanks for walking.”

Many people walked with photos and names listed on their backs, honoring survivors and remembering the moms, sisters, friends, daughters and wives that they lost. They were a constant reminder of why we were there. One man wrote about his wife, his one true love, who had died of breast cancer. Another man told us that he brought a t-shirt to his office last week and asked people to write on it if there was someone they’d like him to walk for. The t-shirt was completely filled with names.

We hope to walk again someday. At mile 37, Steve started talking about signing up for next year. Really poor timing. But now that we’re in recovery mode, we can definitely see more walks in our future.

As many signs noted, “WE WILL WALK UNTIL WE FIND A CURE”. A particularly touching sign said, “WE WILL WALK AFTER WE FIND A CURE TO REMEMBER THOSE THAT WE LOST”. Our hope is that the cure is found soon, and the number of people that we lose drops down to ZERO.

Thank you, family and friends, for your most generous donations that helped our family raise over $14,000 for this Avon walk. We walked, but your financial support is what will truly help fight cancer.

A big ‘Happy 60^th!!” to Steve.  Next year, can’t we just buy him a present?!