Susan Komen Race 2011

Yesterday was a special day. The Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure was in the city and I ran it once again. It was my fourth consecutive year, after I had been diagnosed myself. It's the breast cancer race and I have been walking and/or running it for a dear friend and fellow-survivor. The first year, it gave me so much hope - it had only been three months after my surgery. Now I want to spread the word of hope to others who are newly diagnosed and might be, yet, hopeless. Hope is our biggest weapon.

I got there early to get street parking, and was just walking around to find where the start line and finish line were, when I met my friend from our church. I knew that she would be there, but this race is so big that I was never anticipating to find her. And there she was. So we chat a bit before the race. I was still  waiting for my team members to arrive - who, as it turns out, had trouble finding parking and actually never made it to the start line with me. So I had to run by myself. 

Here is the starting line before the race:

Here is how I looked once done, after three miles. I was able to run it without stopping once. This downtown area is pretty hilly and we ran up and down and up and down quite a few times. But I did it, and I did it in a pretty good time!

Here is my friend and fellow-survivor coming through the finish line. This was her first year running the entire course and I am so proud of her!

And here is an icon of our city.