Walk it out

"What happened to our women? They could've been doctors, lawyers, teachers, or mothers. Who'' raise our children? What happeend to our men? Men who could've been mathematicians, electricians, physicians. What's the little boy gonna do when he's looking for his father who's in jail? What'll the girl do when she's looking for her mother who's out selling herself? I'm telling you that the devil has made dead souls out of you and I. You're dead spiritually. You're dead to the knowledge of yourself and your people, and to the knowledge of your God."
Malcolm X - Malcolm X (1992)


This month is gonna be a very busy month for me. I'm involved in 3 charity walks (AIDS Walk Washington, Riverfest of Laurel, and the Walk to D'Feet ALS). The AIDS walk was yesterday, it was a 5K run/walk. The early estimates says there were about 8000 people walking and running. I lead my company's team and it was very good to see all of the black youth out there doing it up. That is something that I am very happy about. And this goes back to the Jena 6 march I went to. There was a tremendous amount of youth down there doing it. But what I am not impressed with are the people in my age range (24-35). Where ya at?!?! I have my theories, but I won't go there today :-)

But charity walks are very mentally fullfilling. You go out there and see all those thousands of people who have come together for a cause that is bigger than themselves. They are out there walking and running and raising money for people they do not even know. That is the greatest love right there. Doing something good for someone other than yourself.

The 5K walks aren't bad at all. The one charity event that did put a physical whooping on me was the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. I participated in the one last May in D.C. Its a 2-day event, totaling 37 miles. You can do up to 26.2 miles the first day and the other 10.8 miles the secon day. So you don't have to walk the entire walk at all. You can do as little ast 2 miles or as many as 37 miles. My goal was to do the entire course over both days. Everything was fine until I got to mile 18 :-( That's when I felt it all. Every step was like "ouch!!" I didn't realize D.C. had soooo many hills in it until that weekend. The walk started at the JFK Performing Arts building, crossed the bridge over into nothern Virginia, then crossed another bridge into Georgetown, went up through there and into Chevy Chase, crossing 495 and into Bethesda, then went over into Silver Spring and ending in Kensington. That was just the first day, lol. I did all that and went home, stretched, soaked my legs, and crashed. Woke up the next day and my knees wouldn't bend. So here I am stretching and soaking my legs again hoping they would bend so I can finish the walk. After about 3hrs of that, I made it down there only to have time to do the last mile.

But after doing all that, I felt good mentally and spiritually. Raising $2400 and doing that walk is something special to me. Special enough where I decided to go back next May and do it again, lol.