Luanne @ Fifty-Nine: Day Three - Finishing the Walk

Today started early - tooooo early! Apparently some of our too-close tent neighbors decided to get up at 4:30 am. Which would have been fine, had they not decided to talk - loudly - about what they were doing, had been doing, and would be doing. Eventually we gave up trying to sleep, and decided to get up ourselves.

This morning would be busy - we had to cram all our stuff into our bags and put them on the bag truck, and then pack up our damp tent, stuff it into the tent bag, and drop it off at tent drop. We then had to eat our delicious scrambled egg breakfast and get out on the course. Today's absolute delight was finding a can of Diet Coke at breakfast, left over from last night's dinner. We rationed it between us like it was liquid gold - which of course it was!

Soon it was time for the 1.5 mile walk to the boat to take us back to Fisherman's Wharf, which is quite deserted at 8am. We headed back toward the Golden Gate, each of expressing our reluctance at crossing the bridge again (I believe the comment was, "I'm taking a sweep van if we have to walk that bridge again!"} Ah, the naivete of youth - if we had only known how much easier/safer the bridge would have been! Instead, we turned left at the bridge and headed for the trails by the bay. Beautiful scenery - a little dangerous with the drop-off to one side, the joggers running to pass you on the other side, and no rails to keep the weary from veering off down the cliff. And then there were the stairs going up and down (and I mean UP and DOWN) the cliffs - one set consisted of 150 steps up. Sharon, perhaps in an attempt at protest, fell on one set. While not severely injured (a little bloody but no real gaping gashes), she did get a personal escort down that set of steps. Finally we cleared the cliffs and arrived at lunch.

After lunch we traipsed through the Golden Gate Park hearing an opera performance, seeing the roller skaters, and just generally willing ourselves to keep moving. When we finally reached our last four miles, we went to auto pilot to finish. KB just kept saying, "I just can't stop - for water, for potty, for anything." Sharon demurely asked to stop to reapply bandages. Molly kept moving and took a siesta under a tree waiting for us to catch up. I tried to keep everyone from walking into traffic. Finally we reached the holding area and we all held hands as we victoriously walked across the cheering finish line.

KP and Jo met us and our team celebrated our walk - after Sharon and KB spent some time in medical with the foot people. Soon we joined with our fellow walkers and marched into Closing Ceremonies where we celebrated our walk, celebrated our survivors, and remembered loved ones. We finished with dancing and cheering and then our weekend was complete.

It was a great weekend, full of memories. It's a weekend like no other, that is better experienced than described. It's a weekend to cherish, whether you're a walker or a crew member or a volunteer or a supporter along the course. And it looks like I'm going to do it again in 2013 somewhere - want to join me?!