National Race for the Cure

Last weekend, my roommates and I participated in the 2007 National Race for the Cure. This year marked the 10th year in a row I've been to one (or more) of these races, but this was the 1st time I've actually been able to walk/run in the race! I'm usually at the Ford booth handing out bandannas and fighting off crazy people who can't seem to understand that they do not, in fact, need an entire box of bandannas (probably to sell on Ebay). I was excited to be able to walk in honor of my friend Cecily (diagnosed in her late 20s) and my mom's boss JoAnn (a two-time breast cancer survivor!).

We got up bright and early (6:00 a.m. to be exact), packed on the metro with thousands of other race participants and headed downtown. After a quick sweep of the "good" vendor booths for give-aways (i.e. salsa, Sunchips, visors, foam bunny ears (I live with teachers, remember?), cereal bars) we stopped at the Ford tent so I could say hi to my old co-workers. It was fun to see people and even more fun to not have to fight those crowds over bandannas! We then headed towards the start line. Here's a glimpse...and this was before it got crowded!


Here's a nice shot of the Capitol building before the crowds started arriving.

And here's our favorite part! At the end of the race, we were hot and tired (and those of you that know me, know how I feel about big crowds!). So we hurried to the "food/water tables", which were piled high with bananas, juice, water, cereal bars, Yoplait, etc. It's a great way to end the race!

This year, the National Race for the Cure had over 45,000 participants and raised over $2.7 million for breast cancer research. It's a great cause and I'm proud to have supported it now for 10 years!