Top Ten Signs You Might be a 3-Day Crew Member

Last month, we shared the Top Ten Signs You Might be a 3-Day Walker. We couldn’t possibly leave out the crew, now could we?

10. Going out and driving your car just doesn’t feel right, somehow, if it’s not blaring music, and covered in flair.

susan g. komen 3-Day breast cancer walk blog crew van decoration

Your glove compartment is full of window paint too, isn’t it.

9. You “shop” for your Halloween costume in your own closet.

susan g. komen 3-Day breast cancer walk blog crew costumes

Pretty princess. The gal on the right is lovely too.

8. Siri asks you, “Are you sure about that?” when she sees what time you set your alarm to wake up.

susan g. komen 3-Day breast cancer walk blog crew early

Sooooo early, and yet, so happy.

7. On chore day, your partner asks you to help with the sweeping, so you go get in your car and drive around looking for people holding their arms in an X over their heads.

susan g. komen 3-Day breast cancer walk blog crew sweep

After this, we’re going to pick up trash for fun!

6. Instead of “Where are you?” you text your husband, “What’s your twenty?”

susan g. komen 3-Day breast cancer walk blog crew

Pick up milk on the way home? Copy that.

5. Your bike wears women’s undergarments. Proudly.

susan g. komen 3-Day breast cancer walk blog crew motorcycle bra

This ride takes unleaded gas and a 42DD.

4. All you want for your birthday is a Leatherman and some work gloves so that you can be better and faster at cutting the zip ties you got for Christmas.

susan g. komen 3-Day breast cancer walk blog crew zip ties

They come in packs of 1,000, which should last you a month or two.

3. You stand by the treadmills at your gym so you can cheer for the people walking. They don’t seem to mind, except for when you stop their machines once an hour to remind them to stretch.

I’ll totally fill your water bottle too.

2. At parties, your “signature cocktail” is six gallons of perfectly proportioned Gatorade.

We’re bringing string cheese apps to the potluck too.

1. You gladly take 4 days of vacation time to volunteer and make a difference in the fight to end breast cancer.

Because: this.

Reenergizing Your 3-Day Fundraising

The story is not uncommon: you registered for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day® months ago, and you got started on your fundraising right away. You had a nice rush of donations at the beginning from people who were excited about the challenge and commitment you were undertaking with the Komen 3-Day. But at some point, the rush slowed to a trickle, and perhaps has now stopped completely. Yes, you’ve hit the dreaded 3-Day® fundraising plateau.

If your 3-Day fundraising has hit a lull, here are some quick tips to keep things moving forward.

Work the Follow-ups! – If you sent out a fundraising email or letter and responses have slowed, send a follow-up message to everyone you sent the original message to (including people who have already donated). The follow-ups allow you to do a few key actions:

Publicly thank those who have already donated. I’ve actually had donors give a second time as a result of being thanked in a follow-up email!
Give everyone an update on your fundraising and training progress. (“I just finished my first 10 mile training walk!” “I’m halfway to my fundraising goal!”) Keeping your donors engaged and involved in your journey will compel them to give.
Remind those who have not donated yet that it’s not too late! In all likelihood, they’ve just forgotten and will appreciate the gentle reminder nudge. As a donor who has supported my friends’ fundraising efforts for the 3-Day and other events, I know that I most often give on the second (or sometimes even the third) email.

Set a Deadline – Even though you have until just before your 3-Day event to finish your fundraising, there are countless benefits to reaching your goal early. Go ahead and set a deadline for yourself and share it with your donors. And it doesn’t have to be a deadline for raising the full $2300; for example, you could ask your donors to help you raise $700 in the month of July (the seventh month). The pressure of a deadline can be very persuasive and will help eliminate the “I’ll get to it later” mentality that donors sometimes fall into.

Try a Fundraising Event – If your go-to strategy so far has been fundraising with a one-on-one ask (sending emails, posting on Facebook, asking face-to-face), add some new energy and variety by holding a fundraising event. These events can be elaborate, but certainly don’t have to be. A simple garage sale or a well-positioned bake sale can often yield hundreds of dollars or more. See if your local market will let you set up a table outside. Get the kids involved and set up a lemonade stand at a nearby park or beach on a warm summer day (pink lemonade, naturally). Be sure to put out copies of your 3-Day donation form and/or your 3-Day business cards; there’s a great chance that some of your patrons will be inspired to give more when they get home!

The 3-Day Blog has loads of fundraising posts, and your 3-Day Participant Center is your fundraising idea headquarters. Still need ideas or inspiration? Call the coaches at 800-996-3DAY!

Tips for Planning Your Own 3-Day Training Walk

All seven of the Susan G. Komen 3-Day® cities are now 24 weeks or less from their events, which means that walkers everywhere have jumped into their training schedules. Depending on where you live, there may be official Komen 3-Day training walks that you can attend (go to The3Day.org/trainingwalks to find one), but even so, chances are good that at some point, you’ll have to initiate some training walks on your own. Here are a few tips for planning a pleasant and successful training walk.

Map Your Route – The 3-Day® suggested training schedule recommends certain mileages, depending on how many weeks you have until your event. Taking a 3-mile stroll around your neighborhood is usually done pretty easily, but when you start to get up into the higher mileages, you’ll want to plan your route ahead of time. There are several websites that allow you to plot out a walking route using online maps – a few that I’ve used are MapMyWalk.com, RunKeeper.com and USA Track & Field. These sites are great because they will track the distance of the route you plan, so you never have to second guess whether or not you got all your miles in, and you can even browse routes that other users have already created. Most of these websites sync up with GPS-enabled mobile apps as well, so you can plan out a route in the comfort of your home, and it will be right there on your phone when you’re ready to hit the road.

Recruit Some Buddies – If you’ve registered to walk in the 3-Day with friends or family members, great! You have training partners at the ready. But often we hear from walkers who don’t have anyone to train with, and that requires a little bit of creative thinking to solve. For instance, say you have a 12-mile training walk to complete. It might be a tough sell to get one of your non-3-Day friends to go hoof that whole distance with you. But could you get 2 friends to each walk 6 miles with you? Set up your route so that the halfway point is back where you started, and let your friends “tag-team” in and out. Friend 1 will be back at her car and free to head home while Friend 2 is just meeting you, ready to attack the second half of the walk.

Motivate with Music – Have you ever been walking and heard a song with a tempo that matched your stride perfectly? I found a really cool website called Jog.fm which organizes thousands of songs by beats-per-minute, so you can find tunes that fit your pace. You could make a whole playlist of songs that will keep you moving at the speed you’re comfortable with. (Note: For safety reasons, the 3-Day recommends that you do not walk with headphones/earbuds, because they limit your awareness of your surroundings. However, since most mobile devices have built-in speakers these days, you can safely rock your walk with tunes to keep you moving.)

Pack for the Trek – We recommend that 3-Dayers wear a pack of some kind when walking; waist packs that hold one or two water bottles and hydration backpacks are the most popular styles. Training walks are an excellent time to get used to how your pack feels, so you’re not wearing it for the first time on the 3-Day. For your training walks, you’ll want to carry with you whatever you might need: bottles of water and/or sports drink, snacks, sunscreen and lip balm, foot care items, extra socks, your phone, ID and some money. I like to plan stopping points into my longer training walks (Starbucks, anyone?), but in the event that I’m walking someplace without a lot of on-route stopping options, it’s good to know that I have one I need right there on my fanny.

Know Your Limits – Ideally, your 3-Day training will work up gradually, and your body will respond positively to the increase in miles with no issues. But we all know that things happen. On the 3-Day, you’ll have sweep vans available to pick you up if you need to quit, but when you go out for longer training walks and you find you’re just not ready for the distance you’ve planned, have an exit strategy. Make sure friends or family members know where you are and will be willing to pick you up if necessary, or be prepared with the number of a cab company (or Uber/Lyft services, if you have those in your area), just in case.

Remember that your Participant Center has lots of training resources, and your 3-Day coaches are always there if you have questions.