Irene Smith

On Sunday, September 14th I particpated in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. The “cure” we’re looking for is the cure to breast cancer. My employer paid the entry fee for a team of us to do this race but I need support in the form of donations. It is still not too late! I am including a link to my personal page on the organization’s web site. This will take you to my personal page:

Irene’s Page at the Komen Race for the Cure Web Site

Susgan G. Komen Race for the Cure for the Greater New York Area.

If you can make a donation, please go to my personal page so that I will get credit for it.

Did I make it? Yes. I crossed the finish line an embarrassing one hour and twenty minutes after I started. I suppose it could have been worse; I could have been walking one mile an hour instead of two.

The only thing I can say in my defense is that it was amazingly hot and humid yesterday and since I thought it was going to be cold and rainy, I wore jeans instead of shorts. Not a great idea. Plus, I didn’t really consider how much time I was going to spend on my feet in addition to the walk itself. Let’s see…

I took the train to Hoboken, walked to the PATH (not far, maybe about the equivalent of two city blocks. The PATH was crowded so I stood up for the ride from Hoboken to 14th Street. I got off the PATH and climbed four flights of stairs to the street, walked two more blocks to the subway and then walked down two or three flights to the platform where I stood for twenty minutes waiting for the subway car and then stood for the ride to the 72nd street stop.

At 72nd street, I got off the subway, climbed another three flights of stairs (where I discovered that the exit itself was at 70th Street) and walked eight blocks to meet the rest of the team. So if you count ten city blocks to the mile I have already walked a bit over a mile and that is one third of the distance that I walked in the race itself.

Now we walked about five blocks back to the start of the race and stood around for half an hour or so waiting for the walking start time. By now the heat and humidity have caused enough perspiration so that the back of my shirt was soaked and perspiration was running down my back and my legs. I haven’t even really started yet and I was exhausted.

Finally it was time to start. We started walking and I was immediately left in the dust by the walkers from my team who are all taller than I and in much better shape. People were passing me on all sides. I felt as though I was walking backwards. At that point it occurred to me that my only job was to make it to the end. I focused on the toes of my shoes and thought about nothing but putting one foot in front of the other.

Of course, by this point I was sliding into dehydration. Flash back to 4 am when I was getting ready to go. The weather channel’s web site said it was going to rain hard. I started looking for a hooded wind breaker to keep me dry and suddenly it was 4:46 a.m. The train leaves at 4:50 a.m. so we ran for the train. I left without my wind breaker or an elastic to tie up my hair. I figured I could buy a bottle of water when I arrived at the Starbucks where the team was meeting.

Of course the line at Starbucks stretched about four times around the store because everybody had decided to meet at that Starbucks. No water for me. Let’s continue…

I made it to the first water table where I got two cups of water. Suddenly I felt much better. For a while the walk was almost pleasant. There was a bit of a breeze and the scenery was beautiful. I’ve never been in Central Park before so that part of it was an adventure. Listening to the conversations around me was also interesting.

I made it to the second water table. More water so I was doing pretty well at the second mile marker. Now I was thinking, “I can do this. It’s not so bad.”

The last mile seemed to go on forever. Of course, if you’ve read this whole entry you know that I’ve actually walked over 3 miles already, not 2. Either way, I was beginning to think I wasn’t going to make it. I stopped about three times in that last mile to catch my breath. Mind you, I only stopped for about a minute each time, but I did stop. I considered giving up. Then I realized that whatever I did, I was going to have to walk somewhere to get on the subway to get the PATH to get to Hoboken to get on the train to get home. I kept going.

Finally, the people on either side of the path were telling us, “You’re almost there,” and, “It’s just around the corner.”

I kept going, kept putting one foot in front of the other, and finished the “race” for the cure. Was I done walking? Nope. I had to walk out of the park (about 3 or 4 blocks) to the subway, another 7 blocks and down the stairs to the subway. I had to stand on the subway from 68th street to 33rd street, then walk up several flights of stairs. Then I had to walk anther five blocks to the PATH and stand on the PATH from 33rd to Christopher Street.

At this point, I was thinking, “Oh well, another 7 minutes and I’ll be in Hoboken. I can get on my train and sleep for two hours.” WRONG! All people going to Hoboken were told to get off the PATH because this particular PATH train was NOT going to Hoboken it was going to Journal Square. We all disembarked and another announcement informed us that the PATH to Journal Square through Hoboken is not on a 30-minute schedule.

About 45 minutes later, a train stopped for us all. It went to Pavonia/Exchange Place and told us all to get off. We got out, we waited. Finally a shuttle train arrived and took us to Hoboken 35 minutes too late for me to catch my train. The next train was not until 4:00 p.m.

They say that no good deed goes unpunished.

Don’t forget, if you can make a donation, please do so.