Race for the Cure-10 April 2010

This past weekend, I participated in a truly Amazing event. I did a 3 K Breast Cancer walk/run in honor of all the Cancer survivors, and also my mom, who survived Cervical Cancer in her 20's. As you all know by now, I have been losing weight, and walking at least 5 times a week preparing for this big day. I have been excited about it for weeks, and was so glad when I woke up Saturday morning, and I could put on that shirt that said "Race for a Cure."

Sylvia came down and stayed with me Friday night, and we got a good night's rest. We woke up early, had our healthy protein filled breakfast, and put our game faces on. I cut up apples as a snack, and we headed to Greenhill Park. On the way there, we found out our team captain was super sick, but that she had a back-up plan, sister Connie to the rescue! So our team that was once 6 was down to 3, but we were still pumped!

The weather was quite chilly at first, but once it was time for our race to begin, we were warming up with the day's sunshine. We walked the first entire lap, and then Connie said it was time to run. I knew in the back of my mind that I was going to push myself, and I wasn't sure how far I could go, but I decided to just start running and see what happened. I ran the entire straight away on the second lap, and I had to stop. I was so proud of myself, because normally my endurance is nothing like that with running. Sylvia had been "training" to run on the treadmill in the gym, but so far, I had just been mostly walking and jogging sometimes with my little Dini-dog.

But, once I got in my groove, there was no stopping it! I decided to run a part of the green-way the second time around, and made it really close to the pic-nic table area. Sylvia and I walked the rest of the way until we saw the 2.6 K marker. At that point, we were near the river, and it was almost the finish line. So, we kicked it up the last notch and ran until we reached the 3K marker in pink! On the way in, I felt like a hero, I was slapping hands with all the kids at the finish line as they were saying, "good job, good job!" and high-fiving me! It was awesome!!! I was on a high for the rest of the day!

After the race was over, Sylvia and I decided to get our nails and toes done, and just chill for a bit. We ate a yummy lunch, and enjoyed the rest of our day together. I can't imagine anyone else that I would want to share this journey with. She is a truly inspirational friend, and someone I consider just like family. She is doing awesome on her weight-loss journey, and we just continue to push each other, and talk our way through all our issues with this program. We are truly blessed to have met, and known each other now for 10 years!

This weekend showed me a lot about myself, and just how wonderful life can be if you just take advantage of every God given opportunity. I would have never been able to do any of this without his love, strength, and forgiveness. And, this is only one of many of those moments that I will remember forever.