Arthritis Walk post-game wrap up.

The walk was loads of fun! There were people at every corner cheering us on and the weather was freezing but beautiful! When we left home it was still 29 outside, at the most it warmed up to 55. Before we left there was so much ice on the car that we had to take about 10 extra minutes just to scrape it all off. It looked like snow on the driveway when we were done. Still no snow here, but with frost like this, it's yet another thing that makes me think we'll have an early and cold winter this year!

We enjoyed clear blue skies, views of the Olympic mountain range on our drive out to the walk, and after the walk we detoured for about 20 minutes to enjoy views of Lake Washington too. Just such a beautiful day all around, even if it was freezing cold!

This last week I noticed more problems with my camera. I put in perfectly good batteries and it says for me to change them. So now in addition to the flash not working I can't even get it to power on. My dear techie hubby started working on it tonight after the walk, but I don't know if he found any resolution or not. As a result though, I was only able to take pictures with my cell phone, so they're tiny and crappy quality, but at least I have something.

Also, our friend wasn't able to join us, so it was just the two of us. We enjoyed it though. There was still all the crowd around us too. I wore three strands of beads. One for Rheumatoid arthritis, one for Ankylosing Spondylitis, and one for Osteoarthritis, my three forms of arthritis. I was trying to explain to Kevin that it's really only 2 types, because RA and AS are the same disease, AS is just a more specific version of it, it'll also sometimes be called Rheumatoid Spondylitis, it's the same thing. Anyway, as you check this off the list it's three names, so I wore three strands of beads.

Before we got to the walk I was doing great! The unpredictable weather of last week, and the start of this week had calmed down enough to the point where Thursday night I started feeling a lot better and was hopeful that the walk would be as much fun as it turned out to be. The ONLY downside was that during the pre-walk warm up my back started tightening from a combination of the freezing cold air (I did have a quilted coat on! Super warm!) and one of the warm up twists that my hips and back did not like. Most of the warm up exercise was much like the physical therapy stuff, so it was easy to do, but that one little thing... ouch! We had to wiggle our hips in circles and figure eights and that hurt me. As a result, after half a mile or walking I realized I needed to do the 1 mile walk and not the 3 mile walk. I was bummed, but I was already walking at the back of the group at that point, and my back wasn't going to give me any relief unless I sat down to stretch it some. So we headed down the 1 mile walk after all, and that was nice. That route had loads of bus stop benches so every block or so I was able to sit down and stretch. I ended up being the last of the 1 mile walkers, but about half of the group was still coming in from the 3 mile walk, so we hung around and cheered others across the finish line and listened to music and such.

I didn't get too many pictures because it's hard to juggle water, a cell phone, and a cane... and boy am I glad I brought my cane! There were lots of hills (it is Bellevue, WA after all.) and the cane helped me keep up with the back of the line. I was surprised that I only saw one other person using a cane, but it also seemed like most everyone participating in the walk was doing so on behalf of someone they know. There were lots of people wearing 'in honor of' name tags.

As we crossed the finish line we were all handed cards with shoelaces on them... and 50 of them happened to have gold stars meaning that those people won a free dinner at McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant, and I was one of the winners! Now, this is kind of funny because I'm allergic to seafood, but at least I'll be able to give my hubby a nice dinner out for his birthday next month! Ha,ha! I did check the website and they do have vegetarian, beef, and chicken dishes too, so I should be OK. It made me feel special to win something!

After the event I came across a few links worth saving...

Let's Move Together is a new campaign by the Arthritis Foundation. This link was on the cards we were handed as we crossed the finish line. It's a site to encourage walking to prevent and aid people who have or at risk (family history, ANA results, etc.) of arthritis.
There is a flickr group for the Arthritis Foundation, so I joined that... I want to see if anyone posts pictures from the walk today. Also found the website for the local chapter. And the leader-board for the fundraising teams of the walk we went to. I'm so proud that we made such a dent! We're about halfway through the list, just the two of us (Team Sultan Wilson Family)!

At the moment you can still donate through our page, even though the walk is over. If you had hoped to contribute, but didn't get a chance yet, feel free to click here to be taken to the donation page.

And now for a few pictures... Yes we have eyes, but the sun was so bright the tiny camera on the phone couldn't give details.

Kevin, me, and some of the sites.