Avon Walk for Breast Cancer – Page 2

Last Friday, Ed and the girls dropped me off at the Hyatt where I was going to spend the night, and then take a shuttle bus the next morning to Soldier Field. The next two days of my weekend was going to be spent walking 39 miles for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, and I spent my spring training and talking about “the walk.”

As I buckled three year old Emmy into her car seat, she started crying and holding out her arms, screaming, “Mommy! Mommy!”

Watching them drive away was not easy. Emmy kept on crying.

Hoping that Ed would be able to distract her, I walked back to the hotel. Later that night, Ed informed me that Emmy had cried the whole way home.

She is one stubborn little girl.

Despite those twenty minutes of tears, she survived quite well without Mommy for the rest of the weekend.

Ed and the girls came to cheer for me at mile 14 on a hot, humid Chicago day.

Lily brought a spray bottle to spray walkers…smart girl!

And they also met me at the finish line on Sunday. Emmy was a happy little girl all weekend long.

Monday morning I found a drawing in the car. I soon realized that Lily had drawn it for Emmy on Friday night to help Emmy feel better while she was missing me.

Oh, my sweet girls!

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Whether it was the “Windy Titties” or “Breastfest of Champions”, it was all about boobies in Chicago this past weekend. I could have bought a pink plastic boob necklace or worn a push-up bra on the outside of my shirt. Call them ta-tas or hooters, there were breasts everywhere.

Men wearing bras? They were there too — pink sport bras, coconut bras and shell bras.

Yup, this weekend it was all about boobs and bras.

In the hotel where I stayed, I saw a woman wearing a T-shirt that instead of the usual “Save the Ta-Tas” read “Save the Ta.”

At the end of the day on Saturday, I talked with a woman whose shirt was full on one side, flat on the other.

And in the middle of the afternoon on Sunday, a woman held back tears as she told us about her life and her decision to have a mastectomy five years ago.

Oh, yes, this weekend was ALL about boobs and ta-tas.

Or was it?

We couldn’t turn our eyes away from the pair of husky brothers in front of us, each wearing an image of their beautiful mom on their backs, with the words “In memory of.”

“In memory of.” Words I read often during this weekend, the weekend I walked 39.3 miles in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.

Opening Ceremonies for the Avon Walk on June 4, 2011

This past weekend was so emotional, so uplifting and also so sobering, that all the words I have in me are too much for one post. And so I’ll continue to write this week about my experience as my blisters heal and the vivid heat rash around my ankles fade. Stay tuned.