EPISODE 1 - SHANE'S LAST WALKING DAY

The very first time I met Shane I knew he was an incredibly special man with a will to change his life… once and for all. The first time we met was on the Boston Pier during that brutal weigh in. Have you ever met someone and just known that there is something profound about that individual. Shane measured out to be the heaviest marcher to attempt to walk over 550 miles across 9 states. He accepted the challenge without blinking an eye. Oh Yeah… “The march was on”

The first day Shane blew past Kim and the second day he continued on very strong. At this point in the march I was still trying to pull something brilliant out of my butt to help motivate Kim, so I didn’t get to walk with Shane too much during the day. But he always saved me some quiet time once we got back to camp. He would pull me aside and see my spirit beat down by trying to motivate Kim. He would often share scripture with me and pray for me and just wrap me up in a big hug and encourage me that I am doing what I was called to do. I don’t know if Shane will ever realize how much that encouragement was needed during those first few days. Oh but my chance to give back was coming!

After Kim left, I continued to help Anthony to catch up. Anthony and I made a goal to try to catch up to the back of the lead pack which was Will and Shane. Anthony was showing a lot of fatigue. Partly because he hadn’t completely healed from the hospital stay and partly because he hadn’t had a down day like the rest of the team go at the Cranberry Challenge. After walking with Anthony for Five full days he had finally caught the back of the lead group and was no longer in danger of being voted off for being behind. I truly know that my time with Anthony was a blessing. I was encouraged by him and impressed with his desire to walk through immense pain and walk on completely open raw flesh. This was not so different than what Shane was dealing with. Except instead of no skin, the bones in Shane’s feet were being crushed from his 519 pound frame shattering the bones with every step.

Now that Anthony was caught up I took the opportunity to walk with Shane. I was trying to determine of Shane was dealing with Plantar Fasciitis, stress fractures, or just edema from the trauma of walking. It was impossible to get an accurate field assessment due to the amount of inflammation in his feet and calves. He is so tough he continued walking for 3 days on what we later learned was broken bones in his feet. I can’t imagine the agony of over 500 pounds pressing down on a broken bone… especially not over 20-30 miles. The field medic finally put a stop to the madness when it was evident that I couldn’t stop him. Shane was told he would have to the hospital. This put Shane down at least a half day with about 7 miles to make up. Not only that but it is only one more day until the vote off. The entire team loves Shane, but I don’t know if they have enough energy left in them to go back for him.

The whole team is completely fatigued. They have walked almost 65 miles in some of the coldest weather ever recorded this time of year in Massachusetts and Connecticut. At camp tonight we returned to see Shane by his tent and his feet all bandaged up. The doctors told him he can not continue for a couple of days if at all. Shane made the decision to not pull himself out. He was going to continue until he was either voted off or his feet fell off. All of the Marchers were torn at what to do. They all had one day of walking left. Shane was already a half day behind and only falling further behind with one more day to go before the vote off. It was gut-wrenching for me to see the turmoil the team was going through to decide what to do. Do they keep Shane and wager a potential 90 thousand dollars or do they vote him off and secure the prize money.

No one slept at all that night. The team basically was going to leave the decision up to Shane. If the swelling in his feet decreased by the vote off the decision to vote him off may be swayed. The next day we all started the last day of stage one. We all new that we were starting without Shane and a lot of tough decisions were going to be made tomorrow at the vote off. But still we kept walking. THE TAKE HOME LESSON HERE IS… OUR SURROUNDING CIRCUMSTANCES AND EMOTIONS WILL NOT DICTATE OUR ACTIONS. WE ARE LEARNING TO ACT, NOT REACT!

We all miss walking with Shane, and we are all nauseous just thinking about him potentially being voted off… but we must still walk. When we all returned to camp it seemed as though Shane was there ready to encourage and congratulate us. What a team leader. Even though he knows he has to make up some serious miles on seriously broken feet, he was still happy that the marchers met there goal. The million dollar question (no exaggeration) was if Shane’s feet were able to continue without causing permanent injury. Again… none of us are going to sleep tonight.