They're out there.

At least one morning a week and usually more, they're on Peachtree City's cart paths, huffing and puffing, uphill and down, pushing – dare we say it? – middle-aged muscles to marathon performances this fall.

They are not athletes and, in fact, have little in common – except a burning desire to make a difference in a battle against a disabling or deadly disease.

For many, participation in a fund-raising marathon is a religious experience. For others, it's grueling punishment. But for most, it alternates between the two.

“I decided that this is the year for me to do a marathon, and I will do one for every year I have to live,” said Caroline Price, explaining why she takes 10-mile walks at 7 in the morning.

The only question in her mind was to find the right cause. Price, an executive recruiter who was a Peachtree City councilmember and chair of the planning commission, considered several before selecting the Arthritis Foundation's 26-mile marathon called Joints in Motion.

“I'm doing it in honor of friends and relatives,” she said. “My grandmother suffered with arthritis, and my dear friend, Mary, at age 60 is walking on crutches because of arthritis in both hips.”

Price is also honoring a 10-year-old child from the Atlanta area.

Sure, and there's something special about almost any charity walk or race, but did Price mention that this one will be in Dublin? That's Dublin, as in Ireland?

Price will be one in a field of more than 70 from all over the United States walking or running through the streets of Ireland's capital. Transportation, meals, and accommodations for six days and five nights are cost-free to participants who reach a minimum goal of $4,000 pledged for arthritis research.

Not wishing to ask friends to pay for her trip, Price is covering her own costs of $1,300 as her personal contribution, and has set a financial goal of $10,000 for the foundation.

“I don't walk cheap!” she said. “This is a serious cause and I want to raise some serious money.”

Price walks regularly, but has never before attempted anything as big as this – “except maybe running for office,” she quipped. She plans to participate in weekend training programs offered free to Joints in Motion marathoners by Olympic runner Jeff Galloway.

During the week, she alternates walking and bicycling, along with a gaggle of trainees getting in shape for a breast cancer marathon this fall.

According to the Arthritis Foundation, arthritis is a condition that includes more than 100 different diseases that cause pain, loss of movement and sometimes swelling around joints. It affects nearly 43 million American children and adults.

Joints in Motion participants leave for Dublin Oct. 30. Although the Galloway training program has already begun, it's not too late to sign up, said Victoria Seahorn, event training coordinator.

Another AF marathon, planned for December, will be the second to be held in Hawaii, said Jenice Cunningham, Joints in Motion coordinator for the Georgia chapter of AF. “We took 60 to Honolulu last year,” she said, “and all 60 crossed the finish line.”

Future marathons will take place in Los Angeles; Vancouver, B. C.; Mystic, Conn.; and Kona, Hawaii.

For further information, Cunningham may be reached at 404-237-8771, or see the Joints in Motion Web site at http://www.arthritis.org/JointsInMotion.

The rest of the pack of Saturday morning trainees are getting in shape for the Avon Breast Cancer 3-Day fund-raiser for research, Sept. 22-24.

Walk 60 miles? In three days? Just a year ago, most of these women thought it impossible. But for a variety of reasons, they signed up for last year's walk from Athens (that's Georgia, not Greece) to Atlanta, and discovered that they had resources of stamina and determination they never dreamed were in them. The experience was so profoundly moving that they could hardly wait to sign up for this year's walk.

The 2000 3-Day will begin somewhere at a site yet to be pinpointed, near Lake Lanier, and end at Piedmont Park in Atlanta. Only it doesn't “end” there, these marathoners will tell you. They'll tell you that the experience of banding and bonding with 3,000 other women (and quite a few men), many of whom have lived firsthand with the devastation of breast cancer, changes you and stays with you.

Take Audrey Fowler, for example. A resident of Peachtree City and a fourth-grade teacher in Clayton County, Fowler, 54, is a two-time cancer survivor, having battled breast cancer in 1995 and uterine cancer in 1998. This summer she celebrates her five-year anniversary of being cancer-free, the huge milestone that usually confirms a patient's victory.

“Participating [in the 3-Day] is one of the best things I've ever done,” Fowler said. “I'd put it right up there with marriage, having children and grandchildren. I've met so many wonderful people – it's instant karma.”

Her husband, Wayne, was a crew manager last year and will be a camp support manager this year for what Fowler describes as “a huge undertaking” requiring approximately 700 people. There is a veritable city of blue tents to set up and break down for the two overnight stops. In addition, meals have to be served, signs placed, traffic directed, portable johns and trucks of showers strategically located, safety and medical teams at the ready.

Fowler, whom a fellow walker described as having once been the antithesis of athletic, said training for and participating in the 3-Day has “given us a new aspect of our social life. When we're walking and talking about everything, you learn all about the people you're walking with – there are no secrets!”

And like many others, her commitment is not only to commemorate her own recovery, but “so that my daughters Dena and Amy will not have to face this terrible disease.” She raised over $3,500 last year.

Pat Burns' motivation is similar. As a 56-year-old oncology nurse at South Fulton Medical Center, Burns sees patients with cancer every working day, but when her own daughter was diagnosed with breast cancer at only 27 years of age, the disease became a personal enemy. Her daughter will also celebrate her five-year cancer-free milestone later this year.

”I'm just grateful for the opportunity that Avon has presented us,” she said. “My daughter was given a wonderful chance because of research.”

The New York native walked the Atlanta 3-Day last year and will walk this year too, but in addition, is taking on the Big Apple in October.

“Avon keeps adding new cities every year,” she said. “The New York walk starts in Bear Mountain and ends in Central Park. Central Park in October, the peak of the leaf season!”

Sharon Schuster-Craig, a former opera singer from Kentucky, teaches chorus at Fayette Middle School. Her bout with breast cancer came in 1997. She interviewed for her job here less than two weeks after a double mastectomy.

“I owe my life to early detection,” said Schuster-Craig, 51, “and that's one of the big things this walk is about.” Women need to be aware of what to look for and the importance of mammograms, she said. “We certainly weren't aware when I was younger.”

This will be her second 3-Day. She too walks with the trainees who regularly log 10 miles on Saturday mornings, starting near Peachtree City's Huddleston Pond and ending at the Kedron Kroger, plus short walks during the week.

Ten miles can be hard on the feet. Schuster-Craig is ready. “I follow the experts' advice: I slather on Vaseline and wear socks that have an inner liner that slides around.”

Her training wardrobe also includes the pink T-shirts issued to survivors at last year's 3-Day. “I've met lots of people because of their T-shirts,” she said. “That's how I found Viki and the others: they had on their T-shirts.“

“Viki” is Viki Brigham, 68, wife of Rev. Dan Brigham of St. Andrew's-in-the-Pines Episcopal Church in Peachtree City. She manages a family business at home, is the mother of three adults and now a devoted grandmother.

Brigham noted the diversity within the dozen or so regular walkers-in-training, and observed that they all have become good friends who would not have met each other were it not for the 3-Day. They include a musician, two teachers, a new young mother who is simply a neighbor, an insurance clerk in a local OB-GYN office, a nurse, a supermarket cashier, and an oncologist from Atlanta who makes the trip to Peachtree City every week. They all have motivations for battling breast cancer.

For Eunice Weber, 62, the Texas native who works for Publix, the inspiration is threefold: to honor the memory of a cherished friend; to protect her own healthy 28-year-old daughter; and to memorialize the mother-in-law she never met. Her husband's mother died of the disease when Chuck Weber was only 16.

“I have met some wonderful people” through the 3-Day, Weber said, adding that time goes so fast while the group walks and talks, “you don't realize what you're doing.”

But there's time to philosophize. Brigham says that her diagnosis of breast cancer in 1993 – from which she is now considered cured – was the second most significant event of her life.

“It forced me to reevaluate what was important and where I wanted to be and what I wanted to do,” she said. “It has pretty much changed my life.”

Since her mother is a breast cancer survivor of many years, finding “that lump” did not really surprise her, Brigham said. “I always sort of knew I could [have cancer] and probably would, but when I found that lump, I knew exactly what it was.” Her closest friends recall that the catered luncheon she threw to break the news was typical of her sense of irony and style.

If having breast cancer was the second most significant event, what was the most? The Avon 3-Day, Brigham asserted without hesitation.

“It's the most challenging, most wonderful thing I've ever done,” she said. “No question, you have no idea how this changes your life. It gives you structure, a focus every day. We are not fitness-freaks; for most of us, the most athletic thing we'd ever done before was to run out and get the paper when it rains.

”This has provided a new social structure for most of us. You know, when you have a baby, for the next six years your social structure is playgrounds and doctors' offices, talking about diaper rash and ear infections. Then there's school, scouts, soccer, and then they're off to college and jobs. For people our ages, this has provided a whole new focus for our life.”

The Avon Breast Cancer 3-Day will close its applications soon. For further information to participate or to pledge a contribution toward the goal of any participant, call 404-257-5553 or log onto the 3-Day Web site at www.breastcancer3day.org/.

Back to Real Estate Home Page | Back to the top of the page