Carol Stream native makes 500-mile trek to honor his mom

After hoofing 540 miles from Minnesota to Winfield, an upcoming three-day cancer walk will be a breeze for John Watkins.

The 52-year-old, who grew up in Carol Stream and now lives in Kentucky, made the three-week-long trek in honor of his mother, Laurel Beth Watkins, who died seven years ago of breast cancer.

She spent the end of her life at Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, and Watkins ended his journey there Monday.

"Physically, I've never been so wiped out in my life," he said. "Emotionally, it's indescribable."

Watkins decided to do the multistate walk after friends in the area invited him to the Susan G. Komen 3-Day walk next month. He'd always wanted to do a journey on foot at some point in his life and figured this was the time to go for it.

He said he's also not the greatest at fundraising so he decided to do something big to bring attention to the foundation.

"It's not too late to start doing something totally crazy," he said to the crowd that gathered Monday to see him at Central DuPage.

Watkins started the walk for breast cancer awareness on July 6 in Duluth, Minn. Although he's now a professor at the University of Kentucky, he loves the landscape of Minnesota and Wisconsin, which he often visited during his childhood. Plus, the days are longer and cooler up north, he said.

The original plan was to take a backpack with him, but Watkins decided against that after his back started giving him problems. Instead, he hitched a trailer to himself, pulling along 75 pounds of supplies.

The luggage included camping gear, plenty of food to make up for burning 8,000 to 10,000 calories a day, water and filters for times when there was no place to find clean drinking water nearby.

Although there were times when he felt lonely during his 22 days on the road, Watkins said he was happy to do the walk.

"It was a good experience, no regrets," he said, citing the people he met along the way.

Watkins met with a few setbacks on the road. His feet and right shin started hurting so badly 180 miles into the journey that he was afraid he wouldn't be able to continue.

However, his friends and doctors came up with a way of taping up and icing his leg that allowed him to keep up his pace, 26.2 miles - the length of a marathon - a day.

Tha consumed about 11.5 hours a day with short breaks every four to five miles.

In the last five miles of his trip, he was joined by his brother Dan and sister-in-law, Sue, who live in West Chicago.

Sue Watkins said she had to run to keep up with John's brisk pace.

"But we had to join in and celebrate what he did," she said.

Watkins will now participate in the 3-Day, a 60-mile walk Aug. 7 to 9 in Chicago. He said it'll be a refreshing change to have a consistent water supply every few miles.

To donate to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, visit the3day.org.