Susan G. Komen Race for the cure

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to participate in the Oklahoma City Susan G. Komen Race for the cure.

Rich and I along with my friend Robyn and her husband Brian all participated. Robyn has a personal connection to the breast cancer cause, and I think the rest of us participated just because it was a 5k race that we thought would be a good one to do.

It turned out to be an amazing morning for me. Previous to this I had only participated in one 5k race. It was a small PTA fundraiser for a local elementary school. There were only about 100 people that participated and I ran and walked my way through it to a dead last tie with two other ladies. We were running along and the van was slowly driving behind us picking up the traffic cones... pretty disapointing..

Last saturday I was actually in worse shape physical fitness wise than I was for the previous 5k. I knew I couldn't run the whole time, but I just wanted to do what I could and enjoy the experience.

There are THOUSANDS of people that participate in this race. I knew there would be a lot, but I didn't comprehend how many people would be there. Rich, Robyn and Brian all were in shape and ran competitive times. I started back in the slower pack, but I was amazed at how many people were around me running and puffing along with me. Reading the notes on people's shirts and tags of those they were running in support or memory of was inspirational, and seeing survivors running in their pink t-shirts was amazing. If they could fight cancer and then run this race, I could run just a little farther and walk faster than I would have on my own.

I finished the race with a time of 36:56 on the race clock. I didn't cross the start line right as it started, so my time could be a little lower, but I'm thrilled with the experience that I had and I will run this again next year. It was an emotional time and I found myself fighting back tears throughout the run- even though I had no personal ties or connections to people who have fought breast cancer.

Oh the funny thing is the three of them were finished way before me and they knew I'd take a long time to come in... my time was much faster than any of us realized I would get and they didn't start looking for me to cross the finish line until after I had already crossed! I wandered around for 20 minutes looking for them and they were still at the finish line looking for me. lol! :)