In 2003 I ran Race for the Cure in Northwest Ohio for the last time. It was my senior year of high school and I had ankle problems out the wazoo. Actually, I didn’t even finish the cross country season that year. I wound up having surgery to repair a tendon in my ankle in December and thus ended my running career.
Until 2014.
I got in shape, dared myself to run a 5k and decided it would be Race for the Cure.
Little did I know it would be my 7th 5k of 2014 and it would also be my PR… by 40 seconds!
I love Race for the Cure for a number of reasons. First and foremost it brings awareness to breast cancer. I know a number of people who have fought breast cancer over the years. Despite the drama surrounding the sponsors & Susan G. Komen I continue to do the race to support those fighting the fight.
I broke out the pink pants one more time this year and we headed downtown.
Race for the Cure 2014
My mom and I walk the Race for The Cure every year and this was my sons “third” year at the race. (I was 16 weeks pregnant with him one year!). This year I decided to make it my last race before the Half Marathon.
There were about 1,700 runners and somewhere around 18,000 walkers. It was insane and I LOVE it! Downtown Toledo pretty much shuts down for the morning.
At the start of the race there was more weaving in and out of runners than I expected. I knew there would be some but a number of us actually got pushed up onto sidewalks because people were trying to fight their way to the front. My first half mile I was averaging around an 11 minute mile.
Needless to say that made my finish time even more surprising!
Toledo has an Olympic medalist from the 2012 Olympics, Erik Kynard. They noted at the beginning of the race he was there with his family. With that many people I didn’t expect to see him. Somewhere around mile 2 there was a guy weaving in and out of the runners, giving high fives and encouraging people to keep going… it was him! Pretty cool to say you got a high five from an Olympic silver medalist. 🙂
A New PR
I finished the race and looked down at my watch and 100% shocked myself. I finished in 25:11!!!
Needless to say, I was shocked. In no way did I expect to PR this time around. I doubled back and walked the rest of the race with my mom and we headed over to celebrate with a few friends.
In the end I placed 6th out of 97 in my age group. Again, shocked! Never would I have thought to be possible 10 months ago.
It was a good day for a PR.
Oh, and Pink Panther was there.
