Saturday was the March of Dimes walk. I’ve done this walk a couple of times in the past, and I always do it in memory of my friend Heather‘s daughter Maddie who passed away several years ago. I never knew Maddie, but through Heather’s blog and all the stories she has told about her, I feel like I did know her.
I had every plan to do the 5K walk on Saturday, but then a couple of things didn’t go my way. First, I had the horrible experience with the Hollywood Half 5K and my major hip pain (and almost inability to walk for a few days after). Then, it rained the night before and my hip pain came back with a vengeance right before the 5K.
It was pretty much a sign that I was not supposed to walk at this event.
But just because I couldn’t walk it didn’t mean I couldn’t support it. So on Saturday morning, I got on the light rail and took it to Exposition Park where the walk was happening. I wanted to at least get to see my friend Heather and let her know that I was supporting her (plus I wanted to see her super cute kids!).
I got there pretty earlier so I got to chat with a few other people on the March for Maddie team before Heather and her family arrived. I hadn’t seen Heather since the documentary premiere (she was one of our twitter stories) and it was great to see her again.
I also got a quick picture with Heather’s husband Mike (who is a writer for BuzzFeed).
There was a lot of time to hang out before the walk started, but once everyone was heading out on the course, I turned around and headed back to the light rail. I just didn’t want to risk being in so much pain (also, Sunday and Monday were Disneyland days and I needed to be as pain-free as possible for that!).
But Heather did tell me where they were all meeting up for food after the walk, so once I got back to my car I ran a few quick errands and then headed out to the restaurant to meet up with the group again.
It was a really fun brunch. I knew a bunch of people there from doing the walks in the past and I got to meet a few new people as well. And of course, I was excited to catch up with Heather and her family.
Hopefully this will be the only 5K I miss out on for a long time. While I’m a little disappointed in myself, I know that I did make the right (but tough) choice to skip out.
I think my next 5K is in about 6 weeks so I’m hoping that I can work on some of my hip pain issues before then.
Also, if you would like to also support Heather and family, they started a charity in Maddie’s memory. Friends Of Maddie supports families who have babies in the NICU and is a wonderful charity. Part of what they do is create support bags for families and they drop them off at various NICUs around the area so families have some of the things they need while they wait to be able to take their babies home from the hospital. I know that every dollar helps them out so much and they would appreciate gifts of any size.
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