race for the cure

For most of the years I’ve lived in DC, I’ve tried to be a part of the National Race for the Cure (now the Global Race for the Cure).  It was my very first 5k ever.

Tara, MH and I post-race in 2003.  It poured down rain and was pretty chilly but I did it.

Ever since then I’ve walked, run, volunteered or some combination thereof.  Ok, there was probably a year that I wasn’t in town and definitely one year (last year) that I sent Will by himself.

It’s an annoying race to run, really, because of all the hordes of people.

Michelle has put together the team, Babes for a Cure, for the last several years.  That’s us below – there’s usually more of the team but I think we got a little spread out and didn’t get a complete team picture.

This year, I used the race as a training exercise for the Marine Corps Marathon 10k for which we’ve signed up to run in October.  It was the second race of the “season.”  We usually run the Ovarian Cancer Race for the Whisper first in May which this year I ran in 35:34.  I improved a little in RFTC even given the scrambling hordes, coming in at 34:21. 

My goal and reason for all the current running is to run the 10k in under 70:00.  I think I’m making progress.

lobsterfest

Back by popular demand - NoVA of ZTA's annual Lobsterfest at Clyde's in Mark Center. Many thanks to Vicki for organizing.

Suzie modeling this year's leftover Think Pink T-shirts before dinner.

Will and I and Vicki are all set for our lobstas!

tools of the meal

Prepare to be eaten lobster!

21 October 2009

think pink

Not only did we begin volunteering at the library which is interesting and mind-numbing at the same time (an aside: I'm doing fiction and have similar issues with people not understanding the alphabet and apparently misclassified books as Will does. I've also found that I can't do it without talking to myself. oops.) but I also got Will in on one of the events that I help out with every year - ZTA's Think Pink with the NFL.

In past years, I've enlisted Will's assistance in pinning pink ribbons to cards which is a horribly boring job that makes your fingers hurt after awhile. I, in turn, have woken up at the butt crack of dawn to meet my sisters at Clyde's in Mark Center to make balloon arches and then go to the FedEx Field to hand out the pink ribbons to fans at a Redskins game. I've learned a few tricks in handing out ribbons - mostly that you don't ask people if they want them, you just stand next to the openings in the jersey walls and hand them to people while they're not really paying attention. You'll find that most people won't even think twice and will just take whatever is handed to them.



Making balloon arches is a slightly more thankless task seeing as it's early, involves helium tanks, archline, latex balloons and small specific skills. I have learned that I hate tying balloons together (instead of tying each balloon individually, we tie 2 together and then twist 2 pairs to make a group of 4 - the basic building block of a balloon arch) so I've developed a knack for stringing the arch together. Because it's early, it can be hard to get volunteers to come out and we have to make 6 balloon arches by 8am. Since we were having the condo appraised the same day, I'd decided to only do arches this year and drag Will along for an extra pair of hands. He turned out to be really helpful in retrieving lost balloons from the ceiling being taller than everyone else there.