Day 1- Opening Ceremony (10.23.09)

Friday definitely felt like the longest day! My alarm went off at 4.15am and I did not stop moving until 9pm! I had to get up early to make it to Kim’s house by 5am so that we could carpool up to Lake Lanier (located north of Atlanta, ~50 minute drive) for the start of the 3Day. At Kim’s, I finally met the two Jenn’s (Dooley and Latino). Kim, Dooley, Latino, Meredith, a couple of devoted family members and I piled into two cars with all our luggage. We actually made it out of Decatur on time and arrived at Lake Lanier at approximately 6am. We dropped our luggage off in a huge parking lot, where volunteers took it and loaded it into different Uhauls according to our tent assignments. We then parked and headed toward the opening ceremony. Even though we hadn’t done anything yet, a group of cheering volunteers and spectators pointed us toward the opening ceremony location

From the parking lot, it was just a few minutes to another parking lot for the opening ceremony. It was still pitch dark outside, but the place was alive with hundreds of people and tons of huge, lit balloons that made it possible to see where you were going. Opening ceremony was held in another parking lot, but they set up different booths (and a lot of portapotties) where you could purchase merchandise and check-in, if you hadn’t done so on-line. All of us had checked-in on-line and printed out our badges, so we hung out near one of the balloons and waited for the rest of the team. While waiting, we got the most adorable pink bunny ears from the presenting sponsor, Energizer. By the time the walk started, nearly everyone was sporting pink bunny ears. As someone nearby commented, we looked like a crowd of Playboy bunnies :)

Around 7am, they asked the walkers to start gathering in the corral and the spectators lined the perimeter to cheer us on. Opening ceremony began around 7.30am. It was very short and a lot of fun. We did a group stretch together (it’s difficult to find space in a crowd, but we made it work), then listening to an inspirational pep talk by one of the directors. Some of the breast cancer survivors brought in the inspiration flags and raised the 3Day flag, which was a very emotional moment for us and brought home the importance of what we were doing. After that, the walk began with other walkers carrying the “who we walk for” flags as U2’s “It’s a Beautiful Day” played. They had us start the walk by traveling from the front center of the ceremony through a path in the middle, then around the inspiration flags and down a long path lined with screaming spectators. If you were still sleepy at that point, this opening woke you up. Everyone was yelling and clapping, and I have never high-fived so many people as I did on that path. We were pumped by the time we reached the end and began the trek out of Lake Lanier!

At this point, it had begun to get light outside. We had managed to escape rain thus far, but it was very cloudy and you knew that the luck would not hold out.

Leaving Lake Lanier, the magnitude of what we were embarking on began to sink in. I kept staring at the massive line ahead and behind me of walkers, and thinking about how I would pretty much be walking back to Atlanta- a drive that took 50 minutes would become a walk that would take three days.