Race for the Cure

Saturday morning was V's first ever Race for the Cure! I have been walking the race with my mother for 7 years in celebration of her beating breast cancer in 2001. (Go Mom!) This year was different, not only because V was with us, but because I got to experience the race as a pretend breast cancer survivor.

Keep in mind, I had NO intention of masquerading as a breast cancer survivor! My mom registered us online and must have clicked something somewhere on my registration because when I got my race number it was PINK- so everyone would know I'd had cancer. Well I spent the whole morning getting "meaningful" looks from strangers, especially when they looked down and saw my toddler. I almost wanted to yell out - I'M A FAKER- but it just didn't seem appropriate, and quite frankly I was doing everything in my power to hide my pink race number. I thought it was going to be OK until we crossed the finish line. That's when it happened...just as a woman with no hair, clad all in pink, rode her tiny scooter across the finish line I hear a booming voice announcing MY NAME and then saying 10 YEAR SURVIVOR!!!...to thousands and thousands of people standing around. Meanwhile, my mother, the actual breast cancer survivor, got NOTHING. No announcement, no carnation, no special flavored water at the end of the race.

What would you have done? Well, I looked down, grabbed a water bottle from the nearest girl scout and pulled that stinking race number off and put it in the trash as soon as possible.

It was a memorable morning. Next year I think I'll do my own registration. Just in case.


P.S. Speaking of "cure"...here are 2 more items to share: 1) I am working on day 5 of some weird virus. I've been nauseous, achy, tired, feverish and sweaty since Saturday evening. I've chalked this illness up to lots of different things and now I'm just going with my doctor's diagnosis of "some virus that's going around." Doesn't it seem like they should have to be more specific than that? 2) This stupid illness caused me to miss a long-planned trip to see The Cure on Monday with my Richmond BFF April and her hilarious best friend Kelly. This has got to be payback for the pink race number. 10 YEAR SURVIVOR!