Great Strides 2011

Today was Great Strides in Silver Lake!!  Unfortunately, I didn't even think to take any pictures today. 

Strides for Sax had a small group walking this year - just the 4 (5) of us, plus Steph and Sam.  It was a beautiful day out with sunshine and temps pushing near 70!!  Gotta love it, compared to the cold wind we fought last year!  It was spitting rain on the way there, but fortunately it wasn't raining in Roch at all when we got there.

The walk started out pretty good, but when we got to the halfway point, Mommy wasn't sure how much further I was going to be able to go....  Once we hit the 2nd rest stop, though, things were going a lot better!!  A little hydration and a bathroom break did us all some good!!  Sax even decided to get out and do some walking too :)  He was having a really good time.

I guess a bit of an annoyance we had to deal with - not everyone keeps their kids in control    :(  There were girls about Raine's age who kept passing us on their scooters, then they would cut in front of us and stop and block the path.  We'd go around them and keep on our way, and pretty soon hear "Watch out!" and they would pass us, pull in front of us, and stop again.  It was getting really annoying after about 4 times of them doing it.  Fortunately Raine had to stop and tie her shoes, so that gave them some time to get way ahead of us.

The walk was going pretty smooth after that until we got to the half-way/turnaround point at Soldiers Field.  We were taking a sit-down break while Sax ran around a bit and we had some more water and juice, and there were a couple other teams there.  I was absolutely shocked when a couple members of one of the teams pulled out and lit up cigarettes!!!  With all the CFers around who have lung damage and lung problems, this is just plain unacceptable!!  Even though we have a smoker on our team, she knew better than to even think about lighting up because of the very nature of the event.

Are these people trying to poison the very people they are supposedly walking to save? 

I sent an email to the coordinator Kathryn about this and asked that it be addressed for next year's walk, otherwise we likely won't be attending because I'm not going to risk my son's lungs.

We're also trying to (possibly) arrange to have our own Great Strides walk here in Albert Lea.  They need to add one new location each year, and walking around Fountain Lake would be a beautiful walk.  Kathryn will be getting in touch with me about this soon.  I'm hoping if we have a closer walk location, maybe we can get more walkers to show up!!