I was planning to put together a little video because there are just so many pictures from this very cool event and they all describe it so much better than I can with words...but I haven't had much time on the PC at home and I just don't have the oomph for it now (plus Emilie's way better at that sort of thing...).
But I've GOT to get some pictures up here and I NEED to tell you a little about them.
I took a bunch of pictures with my phone while we were hanging around in the mob scene that was the Komen starting area at the Bangor Waterfront. Here I am with Mom. She's all decked out in her "Survivor" gear.
Mum agreed to walk the Komen for her friend, Beth (my friend Emilie's mom), who was diagnosed with cancer, beat it and took up running all in 2011 (yes, they are an entire family of over-achievers!). Mom feels funny about her survivor status because she had it pretty easy as breast cancer bouts go and it was a long time ago now. The way I see it, she's the poster girl for the way things ought to be: if anyone has to get this vile thing, it should be caught super early and eradicated swiftly and thoroughly. And there's certainly no shame in getting lucky.
So anyway...I convinced Mum to walk the 5k after Emilie convinced me to run it, even though it just happened to land on the day after the MDI Half Marathon. While that wasn't very convenient timing for me, I told myself "Hey: when has cancer ever been convenient for anyone, right? Suck it up, Nancy." and emailed Emilie that I'd do it. As soon as I was on board, I figured Madeline would want to do, but I was surprised how excited James was about it.
Here, Jeremy is getting a pink ribbon temporary tattoo and you can see my left sleeve, memorializing Linda Scott, Great Aunt Louise and Nana Madeline Dane (my right sleeve honored survivors Mom, Betty, Beth and Laurie).
Madeline is sporting a pink bear on her hat and a Team Beth sign:
Here I am with James, who was sporting a very manly "real men wear pink" wristband:
Emilie, our friend, Doug, and I all stayed with Beth as sort of her entourage (and taking it easy since we'd just run MDI). Mum walked with another woman who was there to support Beth and she was a wonderful motivator, pushing Mum's pace the whole way. Jeremy spectated with Alan. Here's Madeline's finish:
And Beth's, hand-in-hand with Emilie (Doug's behind them):
Alan totally missed me crossing the finish line (dude!), but did manage to spot two of his cousins:
The reason why he missed me is because Emilie gave me her camera at the end and I ran ahead to take nausea-inducing footage of Beth's big finish. You can view it (as part of one of her awesome photo-video-movies) here. That will give you the real feel of the event.
I know I'm not doing this blogpost justice, so I'll just wrap up by saying it was an awesome event and I'm so glad I did it. The run itself was fun and relaxing--it actually felt good to loosen up a little after the Half--although by the afternoon I was pretty stiff and sore and I swear, I get super stoopid when I'm running-tired. I could not string two intelligible thoughts together the next day! Emotionally, it felt really good to celebrate the survivors I know and I managed to avoid getting sappy about it, which is good because otherwise I would have gotten all verklempt and been a big mess. And nobody wants to see that!
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