___ for the Cure

The Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure was yesterday, and for the third year in a row I participated; though I am beginning to wonder if that is really helping. There are too many people (men and women) that are being affected each year. Shouldn’t that number be decreasing slightly with all of the money being raised to help find the cure?

More and more I wonder just how many people come for the free stuff and don’t actually donate any money to the cause. I can see how you could be tempted… who can resist a pair of too large pink underwear, a pink lunch sack, pink Sun Chips, pink mirrors, pink scarves, pink, pink, pink. Don’t get me wrong, I grabbed all I could. But I also paid to be there.

Last year it was chaotic but the race went fairly smooth. This year, it took 35 minutes just to get across the start line. There were people pouring in from all sides of the start line trying to get into the race. When you have a year to plan a race (that takes place every year) the biggest issue should not be how to get people started, it should be how to get more people to come. Once it gets going the race is fine, slow but that’s fine because that gives you time to find the team that you lose every time to turn around.

One of my favorite parts of race day however, are the different teams. To name a few there were the “Happy Hoofers for Healthy Hooters”, “Walkers for Knockers”, “Hoola Hooters” (with coconuts as o’s), “Team Tatas”, and my team “I Feel a Song Coming On...”. Yes, I know there is no reference to boobs, hooters, breast, knockers, tatas, melons, or tits in the name but we made up for that with our wonderful accessories that included sparkling pink foam cowboy hats and pink boas. We were awesome!

Equally hilarious was how some chose to “race”. There were people “running for the cure”, “rowing for the cure”, “walking for the cure”, “sleeping-in for the cure”, “complaining for the cure”, “crying for the cure”, “spilling hot coffee on Amy for the cure” (twice, I kid you not), “hoarding freebies for the cure”, “yelling at people for using the wrong garbage cans for the cure”. You name it, people were doing it. My personal favorite was my dear friend Kara’s method of “drinking for the cure”… priceless.

All in all is was another good race. I just hope to see more cure than racers next year