Today, I bravely faced inclement fall Mill Valley weather (60 degrees at 8 am, bright sun, 0 mph wind, no fog) and joined about 500 intrepid hikers to tackle the Dipsea Trail, all in a good cause to raise money and awareness for ZeroBreastCancer.org. Most were on teams, but there were a few lone wolves like me.

The walk began with each of us mounting the 676 Dipsea Steps that cause your quads to burn, your lungs to gasp for air, and your brain to ask “Why the hell did I agree to walk this course ?” (Until 1993, it was four fewer when Jack Kirk uttered the famous saying, “Old Dipsea runners never die. They just reach the 672nd step.”)

The trail went up. The trail went down. It wound through open terrain with the sun warming us and through heavily canopied forests where the shade cooled us. It’s a treacherous trek where I almost fell once and tripped on a few tree roots. But I survived. In all, we did about 15,000 steps and the equivalent of 124 flights of stairs!

Along the way, I was befriended by a wonderful group of ladies on a hiking team called the “Aware Wolves” that has hiked this event several times. Among them were at least one breast cancer survivor, but we were all there because someone in our lives has been stricken with this disease.

Personally, I walked for Val W., Cindi Z., Davia L., Susan H., Ellen W. and several other survivors who are dear friends from the Bay Area to Seattle to Connecticut. And I want to thank my generous sponsors Whitney Fink, David Zeimer, Pearl Zeimer and Michael Mayne.

To find out more or set the date for the 2016 hike, visit ZeroBreastCancer.org.