Team Hope For Hooters at the Finish Line

Sunday, July 10, 2011 –  Day 2

Yes, it’s a bit harder getting up on Day 2. Not so much the waking-up part as literally the getting-up. As in stiff muscles. And some blisters. But “blisters don’t need chemo”! (That’s just one of the many slogans that keep up going.) And thinking of the people who we do this for always gets us motivated to go further.

Team Hope For Hooters walks again. Bright & early down the street to the shuttle bus, and on time for a 7:00am walk departure from the Wellness Village at Corte Madera.

Today’s walk is a couple miles over the half-marathon distance, to make up for yesterday’s “shortfall”. We’re heading back along Hwy 101 to Mill Valley and through Richardson Bay to Sausalito, with Mount Tamalpais in our backs. Up the hill and over the top … no not Mt. Tam, but into Fort Baker again, where lunch (and the medics tent) await. Fully recovered (well …) we’re all ready to cross the bridge again. The Golden Gate that is, and we on our way back into the city. Goal in sight we head down the hill to Crissy Field, along the Marina and – yes – there it is – the Finish Line at Fort Mason!

Our own personal welcome teams are as much appreciated as the many well-wishers, volunteers and crew who welcome us back to the Closing Ceremony. It was a walk worth going, and a cause worth supporting.

Thank you Alisa for being our team captain again this year, and Thank you Kristina, Teri and Clae for being such great walk buddies! I could not have done it without you!

And a huge Thank you to all my donors, as I could not even have gone there without your support! In it to end it. One step at a time. And there were 75,000 of them this weekend, with my 2 feet alone. (Ok, it was 74,788 to be exact, but who’s counting?)

Enjoy some more photos from Day 2 …

Ok, it’s really only close-to marathon distance today, since the route got changed to where Saturday is a bit shorter, and Sunday makes up for it. All in all, we’ll still be walking a full marathon and a half, 39.3 miles! And when you start counting the detours at the pit stops and for lunch, we’re right back at full distance!

After the alarm comes on at some ungodly hour Saturday morning, we#re getting up and get ready. Lesson learned from last year: the longer you “sleep in”, the less you wait in the cold of Fort Mason for the Opening Ceremony to begin. So far so good, but as many other walkers had the same idea, the line for the shuttle bus wraps around 3 sides of the Westin. Oops. Brrrr.

Once at Fort Mason, it’s time for our first official team photo. Team Hope For Hooters 2011 is made up of Alisa (our team captain), Kristina & Clae, Teri and Andrea (that’s me). After last year’s ups and downs (the route was 85% hills), we’re looking forward to some more flat areas to save those hip flexors in the process.

6:30am – the Opening Ceremony starts on time, and by 7:00am approx. 2,400 walkers are on their way. First stop: Fishermen’s Wharf. Walking all along the water, with no tourists in sight (just yet), following the Embarcadero to the Ferry Building and onto Market Street for a block or two. Then we’re off through the Financial district, towards Chinatown and North Beach, before heading further East and into the Pacific Heights district. These will be our only “real” hills for this weekend – what a change! After enjoying some nice homes (from the outside only), we reach the Presidio and all the green that comes with it. Time to turn North and we’re approaching the Palace of Fine Arts, cross through the Marina district and along Crissy Field. Now, only the Golden Gate Bridge lays between the walkers and lunch … not a challenge at all!

Fort Baker is a nice place to stop and rest, and seeing lunch all set up & waiting for us as we glance down from the bridge adds and extra step to our walk. The rest of the afternoon is spent in Marin County, as we cross through Sausalito, Mill Valley, along the Richardson Bay and Hwy 101 (man, cars are so much faster than walkers!) and into Corte Madera. This is where we reach the final stop of today’s walk – the Wellness Village at the Corte Madera! Team Hope For Hooters went the distance today … and as a team we reach the Village, ready to hop on a bus back to the city!

Back at the hotel … it’s time for a massage, and lights out at 9pm!

Here are the best photos of today – enjoy!

Pre-Walk Dinner at the Cheesecake Factory

Friday, July 08, 2011

The walk weekend is finally here! And with all members of our team Hope For Hooters having reached their individual $1,800 donation fundraising goal, we are ready to check in for the walk at the “Event Eve” at The Westin hotel in downtown San Francisco.

And after we have all checked into our awesome rooms at the Marriott Union Square hotel (a big Thanks to Bryan S.!), we’re ready for a pre-walk dinner. And what better place to go than the Cheesecake Factory? None! Thanks to Alisa’s friend Martha (plus her friend), we can swoop right in and claim our table for 7 (the 2 had been waiting patiently for almost 1 1/2 hrs for this).

Ready, set, eat! Tonight, the calories don’t count … we got 39.3 miles ahead of us, ready to walk ’em right off again!

Woo hoo!

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who contributed – thru direct donations or by attending one of our many fundraisers this year! As of midnight last night, each walker has reached or exceeded her/his personal fundraising goal of $1,800 and we are ready to walk the 39.3 miles THIS WEEKEND!

We are excited and all pumped up … San Francisco, 2011 Avon Walk For Breast Cancer, here we come!

Thank you,

Andrea (Walker, Team Hope For Hooters)

On The Border – Mexican Grill & Cantina in Dublin is supporting us by donating 15% of every guest’s bill on Thursday, June 30th! All it takes is a copy of the flyer!

Great food, great drinks – enjoy a night out and support our team along the way! Try the frozen Sangria Swirl Margarita – Grande size (my favorite)… or any other of the delicious items on the menu!

Thank you!

Team Hope for Hooters – Andrea, Alisa, Teri, Kristina & Clae

A big Thank You to everyone who came out to Tommy T’s Comedy Club on Friday, June 03rd!

Comedian Gary Owen was performing, and everyone had a great time! The house was packed and the jokes were loaded … that’s what you get when the “black comedian of the year” winner is a white guy from Alabama with great stories to tell!

With a great turnout to our fundraiser, Tommy T’s has made a generous donation towards the Hope For Hooters team goal! Thank you for that!

With just about a month left until the walk, our fundraising continues to ensure we can all walk on July 9+10 in San Francisco! Thank you very much for YOUR support!

Andrea

Walker, Team Hope For Hooters

2010 Avon Walk SF

Please support me with a donation of $39!

4:30am Saturday morning: we’re ready!

The weekend of July 10+11, 2010 will remain a very memorable one for many people. And for my friends Alisa, Kristina, Clae, Teri, Stephanie, Linda and me, it will always be remembered as a (total over over 101,000) small steps for each of us, but a large step towards finding a cure for Breast Cancer!

As team “Hope For Hooters”, the 7 of us had raised a total of just under $14,000 for the cause! A very big Thank you to all those who donated! We also walked a total of 280+ miles in just 2 days, including 6 full marathons, and 8 half marathons! My pedometer counted exactly 101,000 steps and even though the full distance was planned to be 39,3 miles, the organizers admitted to a couple of extra miles (day 1) along the way. I’ve lost count of the feet/yards/miles of blister band aids, moleskin, tape and more that got wrapped around our team’s feet, but withing just 1-2 days after the weekend, we were all able to walk again (regular distances only).

The Avon Walk 2010 was also very successful in contributing to the cause: over 2,500 walkers raised over $5.5 million! Several local (Bay Area) institutions received shares of that amount, including hospitals, research teams and more.

During our walk on Saturday and Sunday, we enjoyed seeing some beautiful San Francisco sites along the route. We walked over the Golden Gate Bridge twice, through Fort Baker and along the gorgeous waterfront in Sausalito.  Crossing the Presidio and Golden Gate Park led us to the Castro with exciting sights, followed by the Mission district offering spectacular views of the city skyline. Making our way up and down the hills towards Daly City, our final stop was at the Crocker Amazon Park just north of there. Day 2 started back up in the south of the city, leading us back to the Mission district and to Alamo Square Park,  where we took lunch directly across from the Painted Ladies. We walked on the Embarcadero and finished at the beautiful Ceremonies site of Fort Mason.

Plenty of volunteers along the route kept us motivated to keep going, including the San Jose Bike Cops, the youth group, families & friends and many, many more!

The photos in the Gallery below show only a fraction of the sights and support we’ve seen & experienced over this motivational weekend. As our team got split up into smaller sub-teams based on walking pace on both days, I have only very few pictures of my friends who I did not have the opportunity to walk with directly. Kristina has more pictures available on her website … check it out!

And now, here are mine … Enjoy!