My favorite PHantastic event

This may be a suprise to my readers, but even though I have been diagnosed with Pulmonary Hypertension since 2009, I have not been to that many events. Here in Washington we do not have a PHA (pulmonary hypertension association) chapter. All our help in creating these events comes from afar. Until recently we had no idea how to get a big event off the ground or even where to start.


Our current event planning came more by accident than by any real design. Gary just kind of fell into the roll of events coordinator and realized that I was good with the computer and that I liked planning parties - and away we went. He is Batman, I am Robbin. We have no real experience and are learning as we go. Today I was thinking about the events that I have been to and the events that I have worked on.

My favorite event was the Race Accross America. Some of my readers will remember the walk that I organized at the Sunset Stadium in Sumner WA. That walk was organized mostly to raise awareness and support team Phenomenal Hope's first big race across america. These bikers started their relay from Oceanside California, and I was invited to come to the send off.

I was hesitant at first. It was going to cost alot of money to fly down there and rent a hotel room, but I thought it would be such an exciting experience. After talking it over with my Husband and my Mom and having them both tell me that I should go, I decided it was an experience that I couldn't pass up.

Mom and I spent all our money and boarded a plane that was San Diego bound. I was having buyers remorse to be honest. We were broke, I had to use vacation days at work, and we really had no idea what awaited us. We got off the plane about 10PM, and went to get a shuttel to our hotel. There was no shuttle. We decided to rent a taxi, which was going to cost us over 60 dollars one way. As it turns out our hotel was over an hour from the airport. We stopped at the rental car place and picked up a car. Once we got to our hotel we snagged the last parking spot available. It was almost midnight and we were starving. So we walked down the street to get a burger. Honestly I'm not sure we were in the best part of town, but we were starving and it was on the main drag. We went to bed praying that tomorrow would be a better day.

And boy was it! We bopped around to all the little shop's all day and walked down to the beach, which is fantastic by the way! Then we walked down to the race area and got to see our team. We walked, and walked, and walked. We had some time by the pool, and then got ready for the event. We got there early, and really we were not expecting much. We had been told in the invitation that there would be light appetizers. When we got there we were pleasantly surprised that there was a ton of food and drinks.

I am very shy and quite when I mean new people. You are thinking Rae, you talk to strangers all the time. Well they pay me to talk to them! It is completely different than meeting someone on your own. Luckily I had Mom with me and if you know my Mother you know that she has no qualms about meeting new people and has a hard time keeping her mouth shut. I knew that if I wanted this event to really mean something to me, i was going to have to break out of my comfort zone. The wine helped. I let Mom meet all the people at our table and then joined in, and also got to meet a bunch of fantastic people.

Between the wine and practice by the time Team PHenomenal Hope arrived I was feeling exponentially more courageous. To my surprise the whole team bikers and support staff ate dinner and mingled with all of us. I was able to meet them and take pictures and learn all about their route and what they were doing. It truly was a fantastic evening. The next morning we headed down to the starting line and connected with all our new friends. We yelled and cheered for our team, and off they went. We did a small amount of shopping and sight seeing. We had an amazing and meaningful time. I am hoping that we will be able to do more fun stuff like this in the future, and will get to meet and share our experiences with all of our PHriends!