Race...Continued

Starting Line ~ Race for the Cure 2006

It was so great to get to see everyone over the weekend. Terri and I haven't seen each other since our hilarity-filled St. Louis trip with Richard and Kim earlier this year, so it was really good to get caught up with her.

After a delicious mexican feast Saturday evening at Manny's with Michelle, Megan & Leah, Terri and I went to see her oldest daughter, Jennifer's new apartment here in KC while Michelle took her girls swimming with my nieces. When we got back, we hung out with Tracy, Michelle and all their girls in Michelle's room for awhile before we all headed to our 'heavenly' beds.

They're not lying...it really is!

They really are quite heavenly. Unfortunately, we weren't in them very long since we didn't get to bed til around 12:30am and had to be up by 6:00am to head over to Union Station to join the sea of people in the top picture. We met up with everyone in our group, took some pictures, and walked our mile through the closed-down streets of downtown Kansas City

After hanging around after the race for awhile everyone went their separate ways. Toye and I got to spend some time together walking around the booths which were all picked over and empty at this point. I got dragged into the Survivor's picture against my will but I'm glad I did because I got to talk to a lady who had gone through breast cancer twice and is doing fine now three years out.

All during this someone was singing the Melissa Etheridge song I included the lyrics to below, she did a fabulous job and I actually thought it was a recording of Melissa until Toye told me it was another survivor singing. How cool is that?!? So with tears in our eyes Toye and I made our way to the Survivor's Pavillion. It was pretty empty by then, but while we were there a women came up to us, handed me a plant, and told me about her daughter-in-law who had also been through breast cancer twice.

That's the thing that makes this day different than any other day out of the year. When you have on that pink shirt, just for one day you are easily identified as someone who has been through, or is going through (or both, in my case this year) something life threatening/altering. People will talk to you openly about breast cancer, strangers will come up and give you a hug...it's an incredible day and I'm so grateful I was feeling well enough to be there again this year.

On this one special day not only was I surrounded by the love and support of some of my favorite people in the whole world, but I felt the love and support of the other 20,000 people who were there united in one cause...to find a CURE.