Besting breast cancer Besting breast cancer (October 22, 2004)

'Chatty Winers' walk 60 miles, raise $30,000
by Dolores Fox Ciardelli

Bonnie Shamblin was prepared for the physical challenge of walking 60 miles last weekend to benefit the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. She was not expecting the emotional impact of the three days on the road.

"It was a very emotional weekend," said the Pleasanton resident. "One of the women I walked with had just finished chemotherapy in June." Shamblin choked up and couldn't finish her sentence.

Shamblin spent months preparing with a group of Pleasanton women, who called themselves the Chatty Winers and wore T-shirts sporting a wine glass and a pink ribbon.

The eight women started the Breast Cancer walk together at Bay Meadows, kept their individual paces the second day, and on Sunday made sure they crossed the finish line together. The course wound through neighborhoods to create a 60-mile route that ended the days in Coyote Point, Millbrae and then in San Francisco. "It was beautiful," said Shamblin. "We walked through really pretty neighborhoods."

"We talked the whole time," she added. "I heard stories I'll never forget. A lot were walking in honor of people they lost."

Out of 1,613 walkers, at the end of the first day, the Chatty Winers were 185th; at the end of the second day, they were 269th; at the end of the race they had dropped to 1,400th. "That's OK," said Shamblin, "there were still people behind us."

The walk was not without challenges. "I developed shin splints," said Shamblin. "I didn't even know what it was. The patient and talented medical students helped with everything. They taped my shin and foot - and I had a massage on my neck and shoulders."

She said the best moment was crossing the finish line with her team members, plus the satisfaction of raising more than $30,000 toward the $4.7 million raised in the San Francisco walk to help fund breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment programs. Breast cancer claims nearly 40,000 lives every year in the United States.

Shamblin said that she and the other team members - Karen O'Connor, Dawn Barraza, Lisa Symons, Lauren McCarthy-Snow, Denise Colvin, Syvia Desin and Kellie Pulido - plan to find out where other walks are taking place so they can go root for the participants.

"We were really encouraged by the people who cheered us along the route," she said. "It was one of the most amazing weekends of my life."

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