This summer I walked 452 miles, a distance equal to 17.25 marathons, in 18 days through the state of Michigan. I named this event The Victory Walk. My intention was to raise awareness about breast cancer and money for a cure. I also wanted to support people currently experiencing cancer and to inspire them in some way, to encourage them to fight, not to give in to the disease. The result was a life changing experience that will affect me for the rest of my life. It was a very personal journey because my mother died after a ten-year battle with breast cancer when I was 18, and because I had also had cancer (Rhabdomyosarcoma) at the age of twelve. My mother helped me to get through those very difficult years so I wanted to honor her memory in some special way. I also to pay tribute to the second chance at life that I had been given…to finally say thank you for a gift I had received many years ago.
During the planning stages of my event, I understood very well that walking a marathon each day for 18 consecutive days would not be an easy task. In order to accomplish my goal, I had to overcome a number of challenges, specifically physical and mental training. I started in September of 2007 by walking four miles each day, five days a week. As each month passed, I added a few more miles and began working out with weights in order to strengthen all of my supporting muscles as well. By July of 2008, I was walking 20 miles a day, five days a week and pushing weights four days a week. However, during all that physical training, I knew that it would all be useless if I started the trek without the right attitude. After a few months of training, I was starting to lose focus and felt a lack of energy because of it. I wondered if I would eventually hit an emotional wall and let go of my dream. At that point I turned to the internet to search for some kind of network of athletes and cancer activists who could perhaps help me in some way. Deep in my heart I didn’t want to abandon my goal. That was when Lance Armstrong’s LIVESTRONG message made itself known to me. I found the LIVESTRONG community on Lance’s website and I was amazed to read about the many people across America who had been inspired by his message to LIVESTRONG. They were doing incredible things against incredible odds….and winning. I wanted to be a part of that very positive movement because I knew it would help me to complete my trek. I wanted to LIVESTRONG.
By April of 2008, I was training my mind and body to endure distances and injuries that I had never imagined possible. Blisters, sore muscles and aching joints became an accepted part of my life, but I managed to stay positive through all that because I had a clear purpose. The injuries came and went, but the attitude of “mind over matter” remained with me throughout the remainder of my quest and all the way to the finish line. Specifically, I drew upon my own experiences as a cancer patient and kept telling myself that I had endured much worse than training injuries while undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatment. I also reminded myself that many thousands of people were receiving cancer treatment everyday and that my discomfort during training was something minor in comparison to what they had to endure every day.
During my trek across Michigan, there were days when I wanted to quit because the injuries were mounting and the days seemed to never end. On the morning of the tenth day, the halfway point, I sat on the edge of a motel room bed and stared at my reflection on the T.V. screen five feet in front of me. I sat there for an hour with the television turned off and just wondered how I was going to make it all the way to the shower. I realized that I had more than 26 miles to go that day and I hadn’t even started. I also knew that I had to walk another 26 miles the day after that and had to repeat that for eight more days. I had to decide to either get up or give up. It would have been so easy for me to just jump into the support vehicle and have my friends drive me home, but I couldn’t. How could I? The main purpose of setting out on that journey was to inspire others not to quit on themselves when faced with adversity, to keep on fighting no matter what lay ahead of them. What kind of an inspiration would I have been to them if I had quit because of some injuries that I knew would eventually heal. I reminded myself that people fighting cancer have to walk an even harder journey all day, everyday, without a clear end in sight. They don’t have the option of quitting just because it hurts. I didn’t want to have to live the rest of my life with that sense of dishonor weighing on my mind and soul.
I finished my journey on August 14, 2008 in the center of Detroit amidst a group of family, friends, strangers, and members of the Karmanos Cancer Center support team. I managed to complete what I had set out to do, and did so with a full stride in my step and a smile on my face. As I am still trying to digest what it all means to me and exactly how it will affect my future, the only thing I’m sure of is that it has shown me that I can achieve whatever I set my mind to do. I learned that the boundaries I had once considered to be my limits were merely temporary lines in my mind. As a teacher, I felt it necessary to share my story with my new group of students this September, but I wanted to share it in a special way, to give it meaning in their eyes. I have decided teach them about civic responsibility and a healthy lifestyle by creating a Mini-Victory Walk that my students can make a part of their 5th Grade experience and carry into their futures. They will walk a half marathon this coming spring to raise money to help children with cancer. My goal is to use my accomplishment as an example of what they can also achieve. I want to teach them about the importance of helping total strangers to improve their lives while emphasizing the advantages of regular exercise and proper nutrition. I have already introduced them to the LIVESTRONG community online and I will continue to use it as an ongoing resource as our project develops. All of my students are Mexican immigrants living in the center of old Detroit and are very excited about being a part of the newest generation of Americans. They have a lot of heart and energy so I hope I can harness the goodness that they possess and successfully direct it toward a positive and productive goal. I believe that the LIVESTRONG community will embrace my newest project and help me to promote and spread this worthy cause of civic responsibility and healthy living.
If you are curious to read about some of my experiences during The Victory Walk across Michigan, read the daily blogs I wrote during the event and posted on my website at www.thevictorywalk.com.
Sean Shearon was a Dare to Share Contest finalist. Watch his video.
You can contact Sean by visiting his LIVESTRONG member profile.
Make sure to visit his site, The Victory Walk.
