22 miles

I. Walked. 22. Miles! OMG that dumbfounds me lol. wow never thought I would say that let alone do it. 

It was a nice change of weather with walking in now fall season.  Perfect temperature with a nice breeze to keep cool but not cold.  Katie and I walked from West Olive to the State Park and back. It took us 6 hours to accomplish.  We are looking forward to this coming Saturday.  TNT, the group we are walking for, is having a trial/practice marathon (only 20 miles not 26.2 miles) that will be held in Grand Rapids.  This way any friends or family members who can't partake in the actual marathon can still cheer us on to the finish line.

Katie and I leave for California to accomplish our marathon in 4 weeks. It is getting real exciting and I can't wait.

20 miles

September 5th (Memorial Day) was a good day to walk because of less traffic.  Downtown Holland had their 3rd annual Labor Day walk from the boardwalk to Windmill Island (4 miles).  Katie and I walked from her house to the boardwalk, to windmill Island, and on our way to many of different places from there. 20 miles is a long walk. Katie and I had lots to catch up on but even by the last couple of hours we were loss for words.  We joked with saying we were sleep walking. After all we did wake up at 7:15 to get our day started.  We were foolish to not check the weather. As we do typically, we went out in our shorts and t-shirts only to discover the day was not going to warm up.  Probably the hardest walk yet.  My joints kept tightening up because of the cold brisk fall weather. Next time I will be a bit smarter and check the weather before I do that again.


Thanks to momma Dankovic we came home to hot cocoa and marshmallows :)

and of course the time we DONT want sprinklers we encounter many option to cool off.  Wish me well I have sense gotten a cold on top of a fever.  Suppose to go out walking tomorrow (Sunday September 11) but I don't see that happening with me being pretty ill still :(

Thanks to momma Dankovic we came home to hot cocoa and marshmallow :)

18 miles

Sunday Aug. 28th. 18 miles baby. It was rough to say the least. Katie and I walked to downtown and passed all the big rich homes. We typically will keep walking until we meet the half way mark and turn around and walk the rest. No food equaled growling starving bellies. Luckily we turned around a bit early to return to a store we passed. Wow, didn't realize a Lunchable could taste so gourmet lol.  Because we turned around early we had to make up mileage and ended up attemting to walk a longer route back...needless to say we had to walk past our destination 2 times before we were done. That was a sad moment to see Katie's house but had to walk past it. 

Thanks to our Nike+ we are able to track our distance accurately

RIP to my Honored Hero

Sunday was officially my success in walking a little over a half marathon.  14 miles baby!  I will not lie the pain was significant for the next couple of days but I was still able to work through it.  I am drinking at least 6-8 bottles of water I would say during my walk and it took about 4 hours to complete.  I carried a water bottle belt (that is what I am going to call it at least) that held 3 bottles of water and a jug of water hooked up to a little hose that would allow me to spritz water on me when needed.  I will have to admit...I may not carry it again. It wasn't extremely heavy but it did take a toll on my body for carrying it that long.  My half way point was the scene of the beautiful beach at Tunnel Park in which I had to climb stairs to get to (Well worth it).

Tuesday I found out Elora, my honored hero that I am walking for, passed away Monday night.  I personally never got to meet her but she was a grandmother to a real true friend of mine who had wonderful things to always say about her.  My friend expressed how witty, amazing, and down to earth Grandma Elora was.  She will be truly missed by her loved ones.  As my friend said, "this is a bittersweet moment".  She is healthy and not hurting any longer.  She now looks down on her loved ones as she revisits her husband and, I believe, one if not two of her very own kids as well.

Through the sweat, blisters, sore feet, aching back, and many hours that has to be scheduled to raise a little money and help raise awareness it is all worth it with out a doubt.  My temporary pain will never come close to the real pains and aches my honored hero and many many others out there has to battle every day involuntarily.

Thank you for your help in raising awareness by donating your time of words of ecouragement and/or money donations. 

Water...waa t er!

12miles! yes Katie and I walked 12 miles today.  One more mile and that will be a half marathon.  I am so proud that I've made it this far.  Katie is such an inspiration. 

It took us a little over 3 hours to complete our 12 miles and 4 bottles of water and a tall glass.  Thank you to those who allowed us to stop into their home to fill up and take a quick re-coop.

Today was a VERY hot hot hot day and most of our walk had no overcast or shade.  We sure did feel spoiled when we had a moment of shade from a tree.  We had hoped and wished so bad that someone, anyone, would just have their sprinklers going but we never came across the luxury.

Katie and I had held a car wash yesterday.  Another hot hot day and not sure if too many people didn't want to stop due to how hot it was but we were proud to have made what we did during that 6 hours. 

Surprised on doing 7 miles

long day for me today.  Went from an 8.5 hour shift to a walk/run of 7 miles today.  I met up with Katie who was keeping track of our miles...little did I hear her say, we were doing 7 miles today not 6.  lol all well I had a good walk and was able to accomplish it in 1hr40min :) 

I am blessed to be able to do what others are not able to and walk/run for a great meaning.  I hope I can help raise money to hopefully find a cure.

Please feel free to check out my website:  http://pages.teamintraining.org/mi/nikesf11/ntervoort

nooo I didn't want to but now I am glad I did :)

Yesterday was a challenge to say the least.  With work, being a mom, wife, friend, and training I don't have much if any down time for just my self.  I told myself Tues. night I would wake up before work to walk my 6miles.  Wed. came and I got up and headed out side with my dog Jasmine.  It wasn't even 3 miles yet when I started pacing inside wishing it was over already.  around the 4 mile mark I decided to just do it and I started jogging.  .58 miles later I was feeling pumped and proud that I could run that far after being so exhausted from that days walk and those before.  It came close to the 5mile mark and I jogged another .58 miles.  I finished my 5.99 mile walk/run in 1 hour and 28 min!!! YAY.

P.S.  I hit my $400 mark this week as I had hoped!  Thank you for the support.  I have a looooong way to accomplishing my goal, please continue to help spread the word.  I am still collecting cans/bottles as well. 

oooh my feets

Woke up and was out by 5:40am this morning. I threw in a few jogs and brought my dog.  He hasn't gone on a long walk in a long time.  He really didn't like me after 5.5-6 miles.  My IPod died so i am not sure how far I went but I was out for 1.5 hours. 

I have a few more bags of cans to return this week and hoping I can hit the $400 mark if possible :)

Sat. June 18th

Finally, my first post.  It took me a while to learn how to set this up.

Katie and I have been training for  3-4 weeks and are now walking 6 miles.  I am walking about 3-4 times a week.  Today was great, I had met up with my coach for the first time and got to meet some others in training as well.  It was hard to wake up at 6:30 am to go meet everyone out in Grand Haven this morning but it was so worth it.  I just remind myself, I have a choice those who have cancer do not.

I am currently collecting cans to help raise money and finding it is a lot of work but the amount I get at one time is a great way to help raise money for research.

Thank you for taking the time to read about my journey and I hope you will continue to follow me as I progress.