They're out there.

At least one morning a week

and usually more, they're on Peachtree City's cart paths,

huffing and puffing, uphill and down, pushing - dare

we say it? - middle-aged muscles to marathon

performances this fall.

They are not athletes and,

in fact, have little in common - except a burning

desire to make a difference in a battle against a

disabling or deadly disease.

For many, participation in

a fund-raising marathon is a religious experience. For

others, it's grueling punishment. But for most, it

alternates between the two.

"I decided that this

is the year for me to do a marathon, and I will do one

for every year I have to live," said Caroline Price,

explaining why she takes 10-mile walks at 7 in the

morning.

The only question in her

mind was to find the right cause. Price, an executive

recruiter who was a Peachtree City councilmember and

chair of the planning commission, considered several

before selecting the Arthritis Foundation's 26-mile

marathon called Joints in Motion.

"I'm doing it in honor

of friends and relatives," she said. "My

grandmother suffered with arthritis, and my dear friend,

Mary, at age 60 is walking on crutches because of

arthritis in both hips."

Price is also honoring a

10-year-old child from the Atlanta area.

Sure, and there's something

special about almost any charity walk or race, but did

Price mention that this one will be in Dublin? That's

Dublin, as in Ireland?

Price will be one in a

field of more than 70 from all over the United States

walking or running through the streets of Ireland's

capital. Transportation, meals, and accommodations for

six days and five nights are cost-free to participants

who reach a minimum goal of $4,000 pledged for arthritis

research.

Not wishing to ask friends

to pay for her trip, Price is covering her own costs of

$1,300 as her personal contribution, and has set a

financial goal of $10,000 for the foundation.

"I don't walk

cheap!" she said. "This is a serious cause and

I want to raise some serious money."

Price walks regularly, but

has never before attempted anything as big as this -

"except maybe running for office," she quipped.

She plans to participate in weekend training programs

offered free to Joints in Motion marathoners by Olympic

runner Jeff Galloway.

During the week, she

alternates walking and bicycling, along with a gaggle of

trainees getting in shape for a breast cancer marathon

this fall.

According to the Arthritis

Foundation, arthritis is a condition that includes more

than 100 different diseases that cause pain, loss of

movement and sometimes swelling around joints. It affects

nearly 43 million American children and adults.

Joints in Motion

participants leave for Dublin Oct. 30. Although the

Galloway training program has already begun, it's not too

late to sign up, said Victoria Seahorn, event training

coordinator.

Another AF marathon,

planned for December, will be the second to be held in

Hawaii, said Jenice Cunningham, Joints in Motion

coordinator for the Georgia chapter of AF. "We took

60 to Honolulu last year," she said, "and all

60 crossed the finish line."

Future marathons will take

place in Los Angeles; Vancouver, B. C.; Mystic, Conn.;

and Kona, Hawaii.

For further information,

Cunningham may be reached at 404-237-8771, or see the

Joints in Motion Web site at https://www.arthritis.org/JointsInMotion .

The rest of the pack of

Saturday morning trainees are getting in shape for the

Avon Breast Cancer 3-Day fund-raiser for research, Sept.

22-24.

Walk 60 miles? In three

days? Just a year ago, most of these women thought it

impossible. But for a variety of reasons, they signed up

for last year's walk from Athens (that's Georgia, not

Greece) to Atlanta, and discovered that they had

resources of stamina and determination they never dreamed

were in them. The experience was so profoundly moving

that they could hardly wait to sign up for this year's

walk.

The 2000 3-Day will begin

somewhere at a site yet to be pinpointed, near Lake

Lanier, and end at Piedmont Park in Atlanta. Only it

doesn't "end" there, these marathoners will

tell you. They'll tell you that the experience of banding

and bonding with 3,000 other women (and quite a few men),

many of whom have lived firsthand with the devastation of

breast cancer, changes you and stays with you.

Take Audrey Fowler, for

example. A resident of Peachtree City and a fourth-grade

teacher in Clayton County, Fowler, 54, is a two-time

cancer survivor, having battled breast cancer in 1995 and

uterine cancer in 1998. This summer she celebrates her

five-year anniversary of being cancer-free, the huge

milestone that usually confirms a patient's victory.

"Participating [in the

3-Day] is one of the best things I've ever done,"

Fowler said. "I'd put it right up there with

marriage, having children and grandchildren. I've met so

many wonderful people - it's instant karma."

Her husband, Wayne, was a

crew manager last year and will be a camp support manager

this year for what Fowler describes as "a huge

undertaking" requiring approximately 700 people.

There is a veritable city of blue tents to set up and

break down for the two overnight stops. In addition,

meals have to be served, signs placed, traffic directed,

portable johns and trucks of showers strategically

located, safety and medical teams at the ready.

Fowler, whom a fellow

walker described as having once been the antithesis of

athletic, said training for and participating in the

3-Day has "given us a new aspect of our social life.

When we're walking and talking about everything, you

learn all about the people you're walking with -

there are no secrets!"

And like many others, her

commitment is not only to commemorate her own recovery,

but "so that my daughters Dena and Amy will not have

to face this terrible disease." She raised over

$3,500 last year.

Pat Burns' motivation is

similar. As a 56-year-old oncology nurse at South Fulton

Medical Center, Burns sees patients with cancer every

working day, but when her own daughter was diagnosed with

breast cancer at only 27 years of age, the disease became

a personal enemy. Her daughter will also celebrate her

five-year cancer-free milestone later this year.

"I'm just grateful for

the opportunity that Avon has presented us," she

said. "My daughter was given a wonderful chance

because of research."

The New York native walked

the Atlanta 3-Day last year and will walk this year too,

but in addition, is taking on the Big Apple in October.

"Avon keeps adding new

cities every year," she said. "The New York

walk starts in Bear Mountain and ends in Central Park.

Central Park in October, the peak of the leaf

season!"

Sharon Schuster-Craig, a

former opera singer from Kentucky, teaches chorus at

Fayette Middle School. Her bout with breast cancer came

in 1997. She interviewed for her job here less than two

weeks after a double mastectomy.

"I owe my life to

early detection," said Schuster-Craig, 51, "and

that's one of the big things this walk is about."

Women need to be aware of what to look for and the

importance of mammograms, she said. "We certainly

weren't aware when I was younger."

This will be her second

3-Day. She too walks with the trainees who regularly log

10 miles on Saturday mornings, starting near Peachtree

City's Huddleston Pond and ending at the Kedron Kroger,

plus short walks during the week.

Ten miles can be hard on

the feet. Schuster-Craig is ready. "I follow the

experts' advice: I slather on Vaseline and wear socks

that have an inner liner that slides around."

Her training wardrobe also

includes the pink T-shirts issued to survivors at last

year's 3-Day. "I've met lots of people because of

their T-shirts," she said. "That's how I found

Viki and the others: they had on their T-shirts."

"Viki" is Viki

Brigham, 68, wife of Rev. Dan Brigham of St.

Andrew's-in-the-Pines Episcopal Church in Peachtree City.

She manages a family business at home, is the mother of

three adults and now a devoted grandmother.

Brigham noted the diversity

within the dozen or so regular walkers-in-training, and

observed that they all have become good friends who would

not have met each other were it not for the 3-Day. They

include a musician, two teachers, a new young mother who

is simply a neighbor, an insurance clerk in a local

OB-GYN office, a nurse, a supermarket cashier, and an

oncologist from Atlanta who makes the trip to Peachtree

City every week. They all have motivations for battling

breast cancer.

For Eunice Weber, 62, the

Texas native who works for Publix, the inspiration is

threefold: to honor the memory of a cherished friend; to

protect her own healthy 28-year-old daughter; and to

memorialize the mother-in-law she never met. Her

husband's mother died of the disease when Chuck Weber was

only 16.

"I have met some

wonderful people" through the 3-Day, Weber said,

adding that time goes so fast while the group walks and

talks, "you don't realize what you're doing."

But there's time to

philosophize. Brigham says that her diagnosis of breast

cancer in 1993 - from which she is now considered

cured - was the second most significant event of her

life.

"It forced me to

reevaluate what was important and where I wanted to be

and what I wanted to do," she said. "It has

pretty much changed my life."

Since her mother is a

breast cancer survivor of many years, finding "that

lump" did not really surprise her, Brigham said.

"I always sort of knew I could [have cancer] and

probably would, but when I found that lump, I knew

exactly what it was." Her closest friends recall

that the catered luncheon she threw to break the news was

typical of her sense of irony and style.

If having breast cancer was

the second most significant event, what was the most? The

Avon 3-Day, Brigham asserted without hesitation.

"It's the most

challenging, most wonderful thing I've ever done,"

she said. "No question, you have no idea how this

changes your life. It gives you structure, a focus every

day. We are not fitness-freaks; for most of us, the most

athletic thing we'd ever done before was to run out and

get the paper when it rains.

"This has provided a

new social structure for most of us. You know, when you

have a baby, for the next six years your social structure

is playgrounds and doctors' offices, talking about diaper

rash and ear infections. Then there's school, scouts,

soccer, and then they're off to college and jobs. For

people our ages, this has provided a whole new focus for

our life."

The Avon Breast Cancer

3-Day will close its applications soon. For further

information to participate or to pledge a contribution

toward the goal of any participant, call 404-257-5553 or

log onto the 3-Day Web site at www.breastcancer3day.org /.