Day 20 – 26.44 miles

I was sleeping great when all of a sudden, at 3:20 AM, my tent was being hit with the sprinkler system that was in the yard that we were camping in. I didn’t think to look for sprinklers when I set up and I am sure our host forgot about it. I couldn’t do anything because I didn’t want to wake them up at 3:30. My tent can hold the water out but it sounded like a hurricane for an hour lol. I wasn’t able to go back to sleep but that was ok because I wanted an early start anyways.

Our goal today was to walk a marathon distance. We decided to all start at our own time this morning and go at our own paces since it was our longest attempt so far and there were long stretches where we wouldn’t be seeing other people as we were mainly on the side of a busy highway.

The early start was lovely. I was able to get about 4 miles in before the sun came up. It was also nice to see the sun rise while walking. I kept pushing hard for the first part of the day to take advantage of cooler temperatures. Having done long walks before, I know that doing hard miles in the heat is miserable. So we pushed on…

We ran into a woman who was out walking her dog. She seemed interested by Lieutenant Dan, my pushcart. I told her what we were all about and she took a video of me so that she could share it with her friends on facebook. We walked on and shortly after she came back to give us a donation and to talk some more. It was really nice.

Not long after that, a friend of hers who saw the video grabbed her bicycle and came out to find us. She lost her daughter Alison 3 years ago. She also is working hard to try to save lives. I was so honored to meet her and talk for a while. It’s always hard to meet someone who has that hole in their heart but I like to think that my sister had something to do with the interaction so I appreciate it every time. I know that I will be keeping in touch.

We then had a long, hot stretch going alongside U.S. 1. There was a bike lane and that was it. So we tried to go as quick as possible until the sidewalks showed back up. It was a beautiful walk but we had to stay alert while walking so close to the highway. The sidewalks finally came back.

Then we had some people come to join us. Allie and Samantha heard about us through facebook and came out for a couple of miles to walk with us. Samantha also offered to let us stay at her house in a couple of days when we get to her area. They were both awesome and I am glad we connected. Fun stuff.

They left and then we had another long, hot stretch. This time we had a sidewalk which was nice. We were already 20 miles into the day at this point and now we had the hottest part of the afternoon to finish the last few miles. I tried to stay in a McDonald’s to wait out the heat but Stick wanted to go ahead and push through it and get done with the walking part of the day. I complied. It was the better option anyways. It’s best to keep going so your legs and feet don’t settle.

Domino was hot too. She was hydrated but still hot in the sun. She was walking in the shade that Lieutenant Dan was casting. She hung tough though. We made it to our destination. 26.44 miles. It was fun. I felt good. I felt so happy being back to this. I love the pain in my feet after a long day of walking. I must be crazy but I feel right at home on these long walks. Kind of makes me start to think that this won’t be the last one!

We all got together and checked in to a hotel that a friend of Abhay’s reserved for us. It was so awesome to have a nice place to retreat to after walking a marathon. We all slugged our way to dinner and then crashed.