I was ready to go at the start line this morning just before sunrise. It had already been raining to start Day 2, but wasn't too bad at the start. Just some drizzle. This did not dampen spirits again - certainly not for this troupe of Jenny's Breast Buddies.
As it turns out, 15 miles into the walk today I walked past a beachfront condo in Mission Beach that had a huge sign up for Jenny's Breast Buddies. But before all that - right out of the starting gate - was sunrise. And I thought this might be the only sunshine we saw today, so I turned around and shot this while walking backwards (forgive the shaky focus):
It did not take long for the drizzle and light rain to turn signifcantly more serious. A fellow walker (you may know her) called me at mile 6 to tell me she was still in the parking lot - because it was "pouring." It was pouring everywhere, of course, and here's the primary reason that both shoes and socks were soaked fast. . .and a change of socks and even shoes made little, if any, difference today:
One of the really remarkable things about this walk is the volunteers that work it - they don't HAVE to, of course, which is why they are volunteers - but they made it fun. At Pit Stop 4 today, this group actually put together a rap about staying hydrated - even when it's so wet. Extremely humorous group:
I was really quite pleased to get to the Finish Line today, with my wet everything after 5 1/2 hours of walking in the rain. I was #41 crossing the line, which out of 4,000 is a pretty fast finish. But it's solely because I wanted to get on and off the route before what was the really heavy rain would hit in the afternoon. And yet although I kept a pretty good pace today, I was still slowing considerably at about mile 16. Here, a happy camper:
For those of us staying at the camp in Crown Point, these tents will not put up much resistance to the water coming out of the sky. . .but they're still going to be a great place to crash tonight:
Tomorrow, we'll get up to what should be drier conditions (although not completely dry) and start Day 3. Hard to believe it's going so quickly! Some of the people I've met along the way are already talking me into registering for 2011. They may not have to do much convincing at all.
