| Day One - Avon 3-Day Walk |
Pit Stop
Pit Stops have snacks, water and sports drink, porta-johns (PJ), first aid and blister
self-care, and space to sit down and stretch. Each Pit Stop also has a fun
theme with signs and costumes for the Crew - everything from Pit3.com to Snow
White to Area 51.
Our first Pit Stop was at 1.5 miles, a perfect place to relieve the bladder - the PJs all have waterless hand cleanser and are fresh and non-smelly. The fantastic crew were ready with water and sports drink and snacks. I drank some of the water I had in there and added sports drink to it. I planned to drink mostly a 50-50 mixture. From here the route headed out along a busy business/industrial stretch, but cars happily honked to us and it was easier to pass other walkers now as we spread out a bit and assumed our own paces. Pit Stops have closing times (9 am for Pit Stop 1, 10:15 for Pit Stop 2, etc.), and walkers who reach them after the closing time will be transported to the next Pit Stop to resume their walk.
To emphasize the superior services of the Avon 3-Day Walk, in the above photo I count over 40 porta-johns, which is probably more at Pit Stop One than on the entire Portland Marathon (known to be an excellent event and which has twice as many participants).
Grab 'N Go
These are smaller stops which chiefly provide water, sports drink, and PJ.
Our first
Grab 'N Go was at 3.15 miles. The Crew encouraged us to keep drinking enough to have
to use the PJ at every stop, were a maximum of 3 miles between. The day was heating
up, and my body had trained at temperatures from 25F to 65F and hadn't worn shorts or
walked in short sleeves in 7 months. I heeded the advice and kept drinking.
I
shed my Avon 3-Day t-shirt at this point to walk in my CoolMax Duofold t-shirt.
I
strapped the extra t-shirt to my waistpack.
Next page > The Route and the Heat
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Photos copyright (c) 2001, Wendy Bumgardner, licensed to About.com
