excited AND scared.

Hi all,

I'm sorry I've been the worst blogger ever. I promise I will do a MASSIVE recap after this weekend's walk (AHHHHH.), but for now, this:

In just one week, I’ll be at the closing ceremonies for the 3-Day Walk for the Cure in Chicago. Ahhhh! I can’t believe that. I am excited, terrified, nervous, elated…pretty much running the whole gamut of emotion. But ultimately, I am grateful.

I am grateful for the opportunity to learn my new city in a way not many do. I’ve walked uptown, downtown, east and west. I’ve seen hidden rooms, national landmarks, and every pit stop on the west side from 122^nd street to Battery Park. Training has taken me to some of NYC’s most iconic areas, but also hidden gems that lifelong New Yorkers haven’t explored. I can’t think of a better way to spend a spring/summer.

I am grateful for the people I have met on this journey. People like Burt, our training walk leader, who will be walking for the 10^th consecutive year. He’s doing not one, but TWO walks this year, and has already raised well over his minimums. And he won’t hang up his pink sneakers until there is a cure. Or Liz, a survivor who has walked in a different city in each of the 7 years since she’s gone into remission. Liz is a badass who is in better shape than I will ever be, and has been a remarkable inspiration and resource for all of my 3Day questions. And Jen, a fellow Midwestern transplant, who has three small kids and still makes time to travel, follow her passions, and train for a 3Day. These people have become a kind of second family here in the city. We check in on each other, celebrate successes, commiserate struggles, and, oh yeah, walk a lot. I don’t know how I would have gotten through these 15-20 mile training walks without them. Let’s be honest, I probably wouldn’t have done them, and then I’d be even more nervous going into this weekend. Maybe the best testament to the group is the fact that I’m planning to continue walking with them after this weekend is over. That’s right, folks, I will continue to spend my Saturdays walking 20+ miles. These people are just that awesome. And I could write an entire different letter about the online 3Day community – the blogs and tweets, etc – it is unreal.

Maybe most of all, though, I’m grateful for you. I can’t believe how phenomenally generous everyone has been. For those of you who have donated in the moolah department – I understand the sacrifices everyone is making right now and I cannot express to you how much it means to me that you’ve deemed this cause worthy of your dough. It’s so easy to be caught up in the training and the gear and the hydration, but ultimately this is about saving lives. Like. Really. Your dineros. Saving lives. Real. Everyone else – there’s still time! Ha. Kidding (kind of). But seriously, thank you for letting me complain about my blisters, brag about my mileage, and talk your ear off about the wonders of the 3Day journey. The moral support is every bit as important as the financial in a journey like this. I’ve always known I was surrounded by wonderful people, but I honestly have never felt luckier. I can never ever thank you enough.

I literally would not be walking without your support, and I will certainly need it this weekend! If you’re in Chicagoland, you can come visit us (see cheering stations here)! And if not, know that any time I’m struggling through my 60 miles, my thoughts will turn to you and I know it will give me the strength to keep a-walkin’.

You guys are the best.

Love and love,

KFine

P.S. Still interested in donating? Click here!!

sunrise, sunset

I've spent the last 10 minutes straight staring at this photo:

Happy Monday to ME!

This weekend I did my longest training walk to date - 18 miles, plus 2 once I got back to Manhattan = 20 MILES!!! And man am I paying for it. I walked most of the 18 with Liz, a wonderful woman I've met through my training walk group. She is in amazing shape and keeps a pace that is...well I'll call it brisk. My legs might have some other choice words for it. It was a gorgeous day, though, and there's nowhere else I would have rather been than out walking.

In fundraising news, I'm less than $500 away from $3K! I have to think up some creative last-month ideas. Cause I will NOT let a measly $460 keep me from my goal!

I got to have lunch with my Aunt Sharon this week, who is one of the other members of the Lady Tatas. It was so great to see her and made me all the more excited for the event. It's so easy to get caught up in the logistical questions of everything - Have I trained enough? Which shoes work the best? How the hell do I pack? But, at the end of the (3) day(s), I get to spend an entire weekend with three of my favorite women in the entire world. And that alone will be enough.

I feel like I have lots on my mind and lots of potential new beginnings, but only time for a short post today. I'll end with this beautiful pic from my friend Lindsay's "End of Junior Year of Life" party at ink48. Stunning.

LOVE and the sunrises to come,

KFine

the beauty is...

Well, friends, it's been a while, hasn't it! I've had a crazy couple of weeks resulting in not a lot of walking and a LOT of eating, which in turn translated to not a lot of blogging. But I'm BACK.

I'm having a hard time with this "spending money" part of the 3-Day. I know, I know, I need good shoes, I need a good pack, I apparently need some schmancy socks, and I DEFINITELY need a lot of sunscreen. Unfortunately, the combination of my less-than-desirable income and my more-than-expensive city makes this a liiiittle difficult to rationalize. This results in me spending about 8.5 hours of my 9 hour work day shopping online for said items, only to succumb to either my frugality or my indecisiveness (or both!) and give up. I want to make sure I have the absolutely definitely totally completely PERFECT items, because I can't afford to try them all out until I find the lumbar pack of my dreams. I was so thrilled when @the3day retweeted my plea for lumbar pack advice, but then it ended up confusing me more!! I think I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and make decisions and just deal with it...but not before I ask my fellow walkers for their advice this weekend. We're doing a 16 miler from Penn Station to Brooklyn and back on Saturday! Holla!

After a few rough waking-up mornings I'm back to walking to work, which is delightful. I stopped and got some fruit on my walk this morning, and discovered not one, but TWO free sample stands - one for Simply Orange OJ (my fav!) and one for some Quaker cereal something (they gave me four boxes. Hey free breakfast for days!). As I stood there debating my chances of successfully stealing a bottle of OJ, I looked up and discovered this:

So apparently this artist, Kate Gilmore, was commissioned to create this piece of art, entitled Walk the Walk. It consists of exactly what you see: a yellow box with 10 women on top - not actresses, not models, just women - walking around for 10 hours per day. I am obsessed. I usually get annoyed with artsy fartsy stuff like this, but it was kind of amazing to see these women walking around on this platform, emanating exactly what was going on around them...tons and tons of women, myself included, walking to work wearing some variation of this exact outfit and expression. As the article states, the "performers" stomp and march at will and do not speak, but rather express themselves in their walking patterns. More than watching the performers, though, I relished in watching the people watching the performers. From the hipsters standing and nodding knowingly in their skinny jeans to the tourists shaking their heads and saying "only in new york" to the hardcore New Yorkers determined to ignore it to prove their indifference...it was fascinating. I like to think I was a combination of all three. I chuckled knowingly, snapped a pic on my BlackBerry, then continued walking to work.

I discover beauty on every single walk I take in this city, whether it's in art, nature, or another human. That's pretty sweet.

Speaking of beauty, Chicago theatre lost an amazing actor today in Guy Adkins. I didn't know him as many of my friends did, but I was lucky enough to grow up watching his performances. He was and will continue to be an inspiration.

LOVE and art,

KFine

P.S. I am SO CLOSE to 50%! Time to step it UP! http://www.the3day.org/goto/kafine