I’m promising that I’ll have a babyproofing post for you very soon (next few days, really!) but I thought I’d share my latest endeavor.
The gang's all here: a photo from the RocketWedding in 2007. Marcie's on my right in the front row, the cute blonde who grew curls after chemo.
Four years ago, I found out Marcie Williams, one of my dearest college friends and one of the best people I’ve ever known, had breast cancer. After a lifetime of me complaining about various reasons why I couldn’t run–I wasn’t athletic, I had knee issues, back issues, asthma–I signed up for my first half-marathon the next day.
Turns out that my physical ailments were minor, at best, and just a convenient excuse to avoid doing something I thought I hated. I had the body, but not the heart, for training–but within a year, I proved my misgivings wrong and crossed the finish line, and you helped me raise over $2000 for breast cancer research.
Since then, I let excuses pile up some more, and let running fall by the wayside all together. Once again, I had the body, but not the heart.
That year, Marcie had both the body and heart to survive, but after a short remission, Marcie fell sick again, and passed away in October 2009, during the first week of Breast Cancer Awareness month. She had all the heart in the world–more than anyone I know–but she didn’t have the body to support it.
I’m running Race for the Cure for the fourth time this fall. (OK, I walked it last year.) It’s going to be near the anniversary of her passing, and I don’t doubt I’ll be a basket case. But I’m going to honor her memory by finding my heart again, and I have a goal: I want to run my first sub-30-minute 5k. It’s going to be a challenge (I’ve always said I’m built for distance, not speed, so I’m depending on Runners World’s training plan to get me through it) but it seems right to honor Marcie’s memory by setting a personal speed record over a short distance, because that’s what her life was: a blazing meteorite, streaking across the sky in an eyeblink.
Susan G. Komen is a special organization to me–not only is at the forefront of breast cancer research, but our college sorority, Zeta Tau Alpha, is a primary sponsor for Race for the Cure. So I ask you to dig into your pockets for a few dollars and donate, or if you can, find your local race and sign up.
What does Komen do?
For more than 25 years, Komen for the Cure has played a critical role in every major advance in the fight against breast cancer — transforming how the world talks about and treats this disease, and helping to turn millions of breast cancer patients into breast cancer survivors.
Over the next 25 years, an estimated 25 million women around the world will be diagnosed with breast cancer if we don’t find a cure. Komen will not stop until we discover and deliver the cures. That’s our promise.
