Race for the Cure 5k

Last weekend, my mother, sister and I participated in the Race for the Cure 5k at Animal Kingdom (Disney theme park). This was my mom's first race ever. She got so motivated after seeing Stacy and I run at the Autumn Rock n' Run the week before that she wanted to join in the fun.

Race started at 7:15am and there were about 4,700 participants. This was an emotional race because of the cause. You can't help but choke up when you see signs of people that are running/walking in honor or in celebration of a cancer survivor...especially when you see kids with signs saying "I'm running for my mom!"...it gets ya.

The weather was perfect. Stacy and I had signed up for the competitive run but we split up, she ran the race with her friend and I walked it with my mom. Since we had to line up behind the runners we didn't get to start all together. As Mom and I were waiting for the start I was telling mom how I was hoping that Stacy would pace herself for the first mile so she wouldn't run out of breath too fast. I was explaining how the first mile should be your slowest and then you build up from there. Well, Mom was so excited at the start line that she forgot all that and went the gun went off she started running! Right after going through the start line we saw my aunt and husband and I stopped for them to get pictures and my mom just kept running. I had to run to get her to come back for a picture.....hence why I'm laughing so hard in the picture.

Stacy improved her time by 3 minutes or so which is great for only having one week to prepare for this race. Mom and I finished earlier than we expected so we are all winners.

After the race, there were tons of free goodies for the participants...of course everything PINK for Breast Cancer Awareness. We got Pink Sun Chips, pink yogurt, pink bandanas, and of course our pink ribbon finisher "medals".

I am so happy to see that Stacy and Mom have both been motivated to start running and walking. It's a lifestyle change that will improve their health and mental state forever. I hope that they both keep it up from now on.