Relay for Life

Walking around a track multiple times between 2 and 4 a.m. is a little odd, to be honest. It was colder than I expected and I had to go to my car to get a coat. But overall, it was pleasant. The worst part of the entire experience was the music, which was set up to be WAY too loud. It physically hurt my ears whenever I walked around the part of the track nearest to the speakers. I kind of wanted to tell the guy to drop it down a few decibels, but that would have meant stopping and talking with him, and I didn't feel like doing it.

My body managed the walk surprisingly well. I didn't collapse, didn't hurt while I was walking, didn't scream. Afterwards I felt very sore, but not impossibly so. Eric and I both walked for most of the 2 hours, both taking breaks every once in awhile. It was an interesting experiment.

If we do it again, I think I want a time slot a little closer to dawn so I can at least see more of the leading edge of sunlight creeping across the sky. It was cool to see the stars, but the lights on the field kept it from being awesome.

All told our team raised a bit over $4,100. You can still donate for a bit longer if you want. I will say that not every team managed to have someone walking the track for the entire 24 hours, but according to our team captains, we accomplished the feat. So if you want to reward that sort of effort, feel free to donate.

Will we do it next year? The team has not made a decision. We pulled the whole thing together pretty fast this year, but we aren't sure what we'd do with an entire year to fundraise. We are definitely thinking about it, though. I wasn't the only person who had an interesting time participating.