the crack of dawn on Mother's Day. I had been dreaming of flowers and breakfast in bed, and perhaps an extra cuddle from my DH.......

Yeah well, When you make a commitment there's no way you can let people down....
So I bounded out of bed,
(Translation: after hitting the snooze button 3 times I snuck my nose out from under the covers, dragged myself into my cold wheelchair, looked across at Ray still snoring and thought, right i'll fix you, I'll leave the alarm still running and the next time it goes off YOU'LL have to get out to turn it off!!! hahahaha!!!)

Off I go to the shower, sure, as if I can get into it on my own!! Well we won't dwell on that effort, except to say once I got under that lovely warm water it was even more difficult to face going out so early!!

Anyway my biggest decision: which hat to wear and whether to dress warm or cold. The forecast temperature for the day was supposed to be a nice 19* (66*), great for a walk in the sunshine (I hadn't listened to more that the forecast temperature)
So I'm thinking, my head gets really hot, I'll be in the chair, out in the open in the sunshine, better to wear something light but with good shade so I won't overheat. So I chose my favourite cotton sunhat. (FIRST MISTAKE)

Now, I put on a tank top under my BC polo, but I felt hot, so I quickly took it back off. (SECOND MISTAKE) (remember i'd just got out of a hot shower so i was still pretty warm)

Trousers? hmmm, no I won't wear the long trackies, I'll probably get too hot, I'll wear the really thin crop pants. (THIRD MISTAKE)

I kept thinking I should grab an umbrella & a jacket, but that's more to carry and more for Ray to push..... (FOURTH MISTAKE)

At the last minute, I grabbed a lightweight pink cardigan (ONLY SMART DECISION ALL MORNING. LOL!!!)

So, off we set, wheelchair, crutches n all, right on time, and BOY was Sis surprised when we picked her up on time for a change!!! hehehe!

I immediately realised I may have made a mistake with my choice of head wear, I had been going to wear the pink knitted cap Barb made with the crocheted one, Sheryl made, on top. I'd pinned it up with a pink butterfly and it looks fabulous. But i didn't so, my head was freezing and my legs weren't far behind. I grab the cardigan and put it on at least my chest was comfortable.

So we get to the venue, well and truly early (by an hour and a half). Ray dropped Sissi and me at the entrance and went to find parking, but just before he left, as Sis mentioned they forecast rain in the afternoon, I handed her the umbrella from the door pocket. There were two others in the boot that I thought about and dismissed. (FIFTH MISTAKE) LOL!!!

So, anyway we ambled around the stalls, I picked up a lovely pink umbrella at the BC Stall, put it down and bought another Pink Ribbon pin instead. (SIXTH MISTAKE!!!!!) (TONGUE IN CHEEK.... ) I don't need any more umbrella's, Heavens, I have about eight, (all at home or in the car.....)

So we waited for my neice, Natalie Anne, to arrive and tried very hard to get warm.... I kept wondering where was the sunshine, oh well, it's still only early, won't be long, it'll warm up soon as the sun comes out. I couldn't find a scarf to buy and kept thinking of all my beautiful warm knitted caps at home, sheesh was my head cold.

Finally!!!! It's our turn, ten minutes to start time we head off toward the starting line, (now I know how little kids feel when you're in a crowd and and everyone is bigger than you and you can't see....)

Still, it's fantastic looking at this wondrous crowd of people who have all turned out to raise funds for a better cure than what i've recently been getting....

All the tribute cards people are wearing, tell a story, of either horror or the same bitter fight I now also know, first hand, what it takes to win.
I wear my pendant, Courage, Strength, Faith & Hope and on tough days I hold it and pray for these qualities to help get me through this horrid treatment for this insideous, relentless disease.

And all these people have been touched by this, many of them recognise that I must be still fighting the battle and i get many beautiful, understanding smiles, I am so touched, I feel like crying tears of gratitude for so many, willing to give up their time to raise money for something that is now so personal to me.

There are people wearing pink wigs and huge, pink, fluffy Mad Hatter type hats and people have sprayed their hair pink and kiddies have painted faces and it's all fun and exciting as we push toward the starting line and, what?

Is that a spit of rain? no-o-o, not now, please.

Oh My, down she comes!!!! It's absolutely pouring and within seconds we are drenched through to the bone!
Sissi gives me the umbrella, but it's too late. Here put this plastic bag on your lap it might save you a little, I hate to tell you but it's too late for that, too!

For over a kilometre, the rain drenches us and everyone is shivering, wet, miserable but in reasonably good spirits.

We find shelter under a big tree and gather our thoughts.

This is madness, especially for someone still having chemo and whose risk of infection is so high. (I'm no quitter, I'm thinking.)

Do we stop or keep going? It's still raining very heavily.
Many people are leaving the track....

(It's all very well for me, I'm sitting in a chair, Ray's doing all the work)
I could read the three of them, their concern for me was uppermost, being in the chair exposed more of me to the rain.

It's up to you, you're doing the hard work but I didn't come this far to quit, we can't go back and we're saturated anyway, we may as well keep going.

As we reach the 2km mark the rain starts to ease. Thank Heavens!

I want to try to wheel myself so I can have a sense of not feeling so helpless. YEAH RIGHT!!! The wheels and rails are all wet and I can't even hold onto them, so that's not happening!!!! LOL!

The rain hasn't diminished everyone's sense of fun and there's a lot of joking and banter between the participants.

3 kilometres, How are we all coping? Natalie is taking a turn at pushing the chair. Natalie is a personal fitness trainer and after a kilometre of pushing she was amazed how much effort it took, most of the strain being on the arm muscles. Guess you won't need to work out any more today, hey Nat? hehehe!

Ray's back from his little detour, Phew! Thank Heavens says Nat, I mean I relished the chance to push my aunt around but this wasn't quite what I had in mind. LOL!!!!

We can see the finish line, we all hold hands, everyone is cheering, I think this is one walk everyone is glad is over. It is certainly one we'll all remember for a long time.

But we did it! 53 minutes and 10 seconds. We collect our completion medal. It's a pity so many dropped out during the walk, it wasn't such a big effort to finish and, what the heck, we'd already got drenched anyway, dropping out early wouldn't have changed anything.
I have no idea how many entered the four events:- 8km Run; 8km walk; 4km run & 4km walk, but thousands finished, and we are engulfed in a sea of people all collecting their completion prizes.

There's a great Pink BC bag, a bottle of water, a piece of fresh fruit, a pink drink bottle, a Health magazine, a lovely boxed coffee mug, sun visors, (hmmm!) All I really want is some sun SHINE!!! LOL!

The sun is shining weakly now, my hat is so wet it's warmer for my head to leave it off.

Several professional photographers have asked to take my photo and though we'll probably never see the prints, i always say yes, cause i feel privileged to be asked.

We decide to add our tribute cards to the Tribute Wall. It's a shame most people haven't done this, they may not have heard the broadcast about it, if they had the wall would never have been big enough to hold them all.

We're all wet, cold, laughing and hungry. So we grab a coffee and a muffin, try to get warm in the weak sunshine and thoroughly enjoy the steaming coffee.

Time to head for home, I can't believe it isn't even midday.

First job, to strip off our wet clothes, my one leather shoe is absolutely soaking wet, the sock i'm wearing I can actually wring water out of our cardigans need hanging up to dry and I'm so cold I can't stop shivering.

The only place to get warm is bed, so after a cup of tea and a sausage sanga I head straight for the bedroom and don't wake up for about 5 hours. Ray heads off to work (night shift) and I sleep for another hour.

Finally I get into the office and upload the photo's, do some cropping and start typing up this, hopefully entertaining account of our Fabulous day.

Yes, it was fabulous, I wouldn't have missed a minute of it! And when I think about it, the rain was, yet again, another blessing in disguise, as it prevented me from over exerting myself, (as I would have) and gave Ray the opportunity, once again, to "look after" his wife. He keeps saying "I knew I could do it, push you all the way in the wheelchair, I knew I could do it!"

So time enough for me to complete the course by my own efforts and regain MY independence, next year when I am stronger,

Thank you for your sponsorship. I have until 31st May to get the personal donations in and I'm confident I will top my target by then.
Hugs n roses and Happy Mother's day to you all.

Photo's coming, give me a few minutes to upload....