My husband Rich is my biggest supporter. Thanks Rich for taking care of us for 3 Days.
Here is his story….

Wow, I am tired!!! I can’t believe it is over. Three long days, my legs hurts, my back hurts and I lost my voice. I never thought it would be this hard and tiring.

No, I didn’t walk the 60 miles. Are you crazy?? Who would be insane enough to walk 60 miles in 3 days?? Oh wait, 3,800 walkers in San Diego are!! I had the easy job. I was the pack mule and cheerleader for my Wife’s team. This included leap-frogg’ing them to retrieve jackets, hats and shirts they needed to shed throughout the days to keep them comfortable. Also there to provide a change of socks and shoes to keep those blisters away. I did everything I could to make as many walkers forget about their aching feet and legs. This included me being the "Woo-Hoo" guy to every walker I saw, to handing out pounds and pounds of candy around as many empty stretches of sidewalks and trails that I could find and cheering walkers on with pom poms and clapper hands.

Being around the thousands of walkers, each of them smiling and with a goal in mind of finishing this walk was awesome. This along with the thousands of people driving around in crazy decked out cars & vans and standing at every corner encouraging all of the walkers to keep going was amazing electricity.

My weekend began Thursday afternoon flying back from a last minute unplanned business trip to Toronto. While waiting for my connecting flight from Chicago to San Diego, I saw a woman and her daughter wearing 3-Day shirts. I asked her if she walked the 3-Day and she indicated that she walked the Chicago and was on her way to walk the San Diego for her team "T.A.G. Team". Christy walks in memory of her best friend Tracey Anne Geils who lost her battle with breast cancer at the age of 33. Christy was meeting her family from Oceanside that were going cheer her on. She indicated she originally planned to walk Chicago, San Diego and Washington DC but her husband recently lost his job and that prevented them from traveling out to DC. She is walking for a friend she lost to Breast Cancer. What dedication and devotion she has to walk these events even with her recent financial troubles After talking for a bit, I wished Christy and her daughter good luck and safe walking.

I met my Wife and her team at Campland in Mission Bay and we started getting them ready for the walk. Some were staying at the campgrounds, some at the Hotel Dana and two from the team were brave enough to seek the adventure of sleeping in the pink tents.

Friday morning, we woke up early and gathered up the team and headed up to Del Mar Fairgrounds for Opening Ceremonies. Our 8 year old daughter was full of excitement and ready to start chasing the walkers and seeing if we could wear out the horn in our Honda Pilot. You would think that these walkers would get sick of everyone honking their horns but they kept screaming and raising their arms. I didn’t see any middle fingers so I thought it was ok to keep honking.

The next three days were a blur to me with us driving along the route, pulling over to allow my daughter to stand up through the sunroof to cheer walkers on, getting on our bikes to ride along the walkers, finding spots to hand out candy as a quick energy boost to the walkers and trying to find parking spots at each of the rest stops and cheering stations.

My Daughter thought I was a rock star because I must have had my picture taken at least 100 times. It wasn’t my handsome face they were taking a picture of, it was one of my pink t-shirts that was silk screened with "SAVE A LIFE, GROPE YOUR WIFE".

My daughter can’t wait till she is 16 and be able to walk with my Wife in this special event. What would be even better, for there to be a cure for Breast Cancer so she won’t have to make this walk and even more-so, I pray to God she never gets inflicted with this terrible disease and has to go through what her Mother did.

It was really special for our two Sons to come down and cheer on their Mother and walkers. It was also very nice for our friends to come down Saturday to cheer on Robin and her team.

With over 3,800 walkers, you would think that the chances of seeing some of the walkers multiple times would be low but it was nice to see some of the same friendly faces over and over again. I was able to see Christy from Chicago at least 5 times and I saw her daughter and her family from Oceanside a couple of times along the route handing out candy and cheering on the walkers.

I am so proud of my Wife devoting so much time to this event. Her teamed raised over $20,000. I am very happy to say that all 7 walkers on my Wife’s team easily completed the 60 miles with smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes!!!! I am also proud to say that I am officially signed up to Crew the San Francisco 3-Day walk. I hope to see some of you up there next year and hope to see all of you again in San Diego next year. I promise to bring more candy.

By the way, I am also happy to say that the horn still works in our Honda Pilot after hours and hours of honking. Gotta love that Honda quality!

Thanks for the awesome experience.

Rich Shannon

Proud Husband of Walkers 4 Life’s Robin Shannon