3Day January report

I was in Vons – our neighborhood supermarket – this morning and at the register Nancy, the cashier on duty, asked me if I had made any New Year's resolutions."I am going to walk in the Breast Cancer 3Day in November," I said. I explained that my late wife, Meredith, had died of breast cancer in 2000, and that my wife, Karen, did the event – 60 miles in three days – this past November and wore Meredith's name, among many others, on her tshirt. I told Nancy I made the mistake of going to the closing ceremony and was so inspired that I decided to make the walk in 2009.

Nancy, who I would judge is in her late 50s, kept scanning groceries. Then she said: "I did the 3Day six years ago. And I am a survivor."

The inspiration just keeps coming. And this one from Nancy felt like a reward. I had come into Von's sweaty from a one-hour walk. For me, however fit I happen to be, the first 15 minutes are always the worst. I always feel like, well, this time, I am so whipped after 14 minutes that the 15th minute without a doubt will be the last minute I ever breathe. Then the glide sets in. Not much of a glide. It just starts to feel like if I breathe hard and regularly, and don't cough or sneeze or do anything else to upset the equilibrium for the next 45 minutes, then I'll finish okay.

But this morning, I crossed a line. I recognized it because in my fitness history I have crossed it many times. I felt a tiny tailwind of reserve. So powerful was this tailwind that I wanted it recorded. And so I begin this report. I begin on Jan. 5 and will file a monthly report up until time for the 3Day, and no doubt I will write about the walk itself if someone will hold my arms up so my fingers can work the keyboard.

I start at 223 pounds (well, hey, it has been the holiday season) by the bedroom scale. I don't know what you weigh, or how you feel, but for New Year's resolutions, you can't beat the 3Day for bang for the buck. It works for weight loss, for fitness, for general health, for well-being, for accomplishment (big-time accomplishment), and for contributing to a cause whose mission is to take down an enemy that kills 44,000 American women a year and attacks 185,000 more. If breast cancer were a foreign nation, Congress would have declared war a long time ago.