In Memory of Mom

Saturday, Jock, Kaylen, and I all walked in the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation's Race for the Cure in Des Moines. I've always wanted to participate in it, and the company I work for always pays the registration fees for us, but it's never worked out before. Especially when my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, and subsequently lost her fight, I've wanted to do this. This year everything worked out.

We of course walked the 5K (~3.1 miles) instead of running, and Kaylen rode part of the way on Jock's shoulders or in the stroller, and walked/ran part of it. It was a rather hot day for early October. Usually the day of this event people have been bundling up for the chilly or freezing walk through downtown. Not today! I think it was above 80 by the time we finished!

It was an awesome experience joining the 20,000+ crowd for this awesome event. In addition to the numbers we got with our registration, they also had "In Celebration of", and "In Memory of" placards available for people to wear. I also noticed many, many women wearing shirts just like ours that were pink instead of white, that said "Survivor" on the front. Probably the thing that stood out to me the most, and brought a tear to my eye as I was walking, was an older woman standing along the race route with a sign that said "Thank You" to her relatives that were walking for her. It's sobering how many people are affected by breast cancer!

Our experience with my mom having breast cancer was probably the toughest time of my life. It was so hard to watch her suffering from something that we could do little about. We just did our best to help out where we could. Our family really came together during that time, and has been so much closer than we ever were before that. As much as we all miss Mom, we know she is in a much better place today, and is watching over each and every one of us. Someday we will see her again. We love you mom!

Some pictures from the race:











These pictures don't do it justice though. The last one shows only a small fraction of the people that were there. At a few points in the race as we'd turn corners, we'd look down a few blocks and see the streets just as crowded as where we were - in the same race as us. The runners/walkers extended many blocks ahead and many blocks behind - it was just amazing!