outrunning cancer!

This past weekend was a beautiful weekend in my life and for Hope Scarves. Our first Derby Festival marathon team competed with 16,000 other runners as team “Outrunning Cancer!” Our team was made of 80 runners from across the country who together raised over $23,000 to support the mission of Hope Scarves. We had the most runners and raised the most money of any first year charity! The energy of the weekend was amazing. We kicked off race weekend with a pasta dinner for around 200 people and celebrated the top fundraisers and the women we were running for. Race day was a beautiful morning and our team was so full of energy and determination. We had runners who ran farther than they ever had before, several who set new PR’s and many who ran in honor of loved ones. My favorite story is how one of our team members wore her mothers scarf, which she received from Hope Scarves during her treatment. Her mom was smiling from heaven for sure as her daughter ran in her honor. I was part of a relay team and when my friend Tom handed me our timing chip I just took off running. I wasn’t sure how long I could do it, but I put one foot in front of the other and ran… I ran the whole 3 miles! With tears in my eyes and joy in my heart. It felt so good to run! (It has taken me a couple days to recover from this adrenaline driven spontaneous pace, but my soreness was just muscle pain, not bone pain and I am doing much better now!) I loved crossing the finish line with our family and friends and seeing the bright blue outrunning cancer shirts throughout the course! Thank you to everyone who is part of our team and worked so hard to collect donations for Hope Scarves. Thanks to those who donated and all the volunteers who helped make the weekend possible. Special thanks to my family for being by my side through the good and the bad, for running and walking and cheering and laughing and crying together. I am so blessed. We are outrunning cancer not to run away from it, but to run faster and stronger than it. We don’t know how long this race is, what the terrain involves or what obstacles lie in our path. But, we will run strong and brave and hopeful! And hopefully someday we will run right into a cure.