Thank you to all of you wonderful people who donated to my team for today’s AIDS Walk San Francisco. As part of Team Gilead, I was able to contribute $550 to our team total of $47,221!

It was not the best weather for a 6-mile walk through Golden Gate Park. While temperatures were low, spirit & morale were high – so many happy, smiling faces walking around Sharon Field, grazing on free breakfasts & listening to good music. As the walk started, we made our way to the front of the pack… slowly. It took 45 minutes to go the first two miles because there were a TON of walkers. I think the final tally was more than 20,000 walkers, and they didn’t exactly keep a blazing pace. But we progressed, and in our little party of six, we found ourselves taking pee breaks every half mile – someone always had to go. As we made our way through miles 2-5, we saw AIDS quilts laid out on the lawn, a Memorial Wall for folks to leave messages on, some live music, and plenty of gung-ho volunteers there to cheer us on… it was such a fun way to spend a Sunday morning. And of course, this is all before you remember that we did it for such a great cause. We felt good being out & about, we got some free live entertainment, and we got to take part in something that’s much bigger than all of us. Such an awesome way to take part in the community.

Ninety minutes later (a 15:00/mile pace), we found ourselves EXHAUSTED, back on the grounds of Sharon Fields. We couldn’t believe just how tired, sore & hungry we all were; luckily, the nice folks at Boudin SF (a Forklift Brand restaurant) donated plenty of box lunches for us. We sat on the lawn, enjoyed our lunch, and made our way home.

R is already asleep on the couch (six miles is still six miles), and I’m writing this now to make sure I say thank you, thank you, thank you, to all of you who supported us today. And now I’m going to catch a nap.