Race for the Cure

This past Sunday, the girls and I participated in Race for the Cure.

We've been participating in Race for the Cure in Peoria, IL since Elisabeth was a baby. I believe her first race was when she was 2. In Peoria, the race is on Mother's Day weekend and we'd always go with Kyle and Jana. Last year was Julia's first race. But, here in Colorado Springs, their race is in September. So, I signed us up and woke up bright and early to get to the race on time.

We got to ride a big yellow bus from the parking lot to where the race was being held...

which was the Garden of the Gods. It was beautiful!!!! It's one of my favorite places in Colorado Springs and having the race there was just perfect.
There were over 8,000 participants this year.

The girls were fantastic. There was not a lot of whining and I made sure that I wasn't the one whining the most. (Gotta set an example, you know)
This was the first year that Elisabeth walked the entire 5K by herself. No Nina to get shoulder rides from. No wagon to hop a ride in. She'd ask to sit and rest for a couple of minutes every now and then and we'd stop, but otherwise, she was a real trooper. When I told her that I saw some kids her age running the 5K she looked at me like I'd lost my mind and said, "I am not doing that!". Maybe cross country is not a future sport for her.

Towards the last leg of the race, Julia wanted to walk.

Elisabeth asked lots of questions again this year. I re-explained breast cancer to her. We talked about how races like these help raise money for doctors and researchers to find ways to help people with breast cancer get better. We talked about how the women and men in the dark pink shirts were survivors and what that means. We'd talk about people who had "In Celebration Of" and "In Memory Of" tags on their backs, especially the little three year old boy who's tag said "In Celebration of Mommy". We talked about how my great-grandma was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was in her late 70s and how she had to have surgery to remove one of her breasts but lived to be 94 in remission. She asked lots of good questions and gave me lots of hugs whenever someone walked by with an "In Memory of Mom" tag on their back.
It's a tradition I want to keep going. It's important. Because they're important.