Race for the Cure

This past weekend I ran race for the cure with my co-worker, Amanda, and her step-daughter Alex. I run this race no matter where I live or the weather conditions. I find it extremely gratifying in many ways. I ran with Aunt Vicki and Aunt Linda in mind (Brad's side), and with their names on the front of my shirt. There were about 12,000 runners on Sunday! I do have to question--with this same event in almost every part of the country, why do we not have a cure? I am hoping it is not too far away.

So this is how the day went: The race started at 9:45, and I live about 10 minutes away from the event. Amanda and Alex where here at 9:08, we got in the car, quickly got to the turning lane to enter the parking garage (our standard spot), but then we waited in line to park. And we waited. And we waited. Finally, we got to the area, and it's blocked off; of course the garage is full. We ended up parking far away (looking back, I could have gone around the long line of waiting cars). So as we were walking toward the starting line, we saw everyone already running. Yikes! How am I supposed to know my official time? Like good Midwesterners, we walked all the way to the start line before starting. It just makes sense. By the time we started to run, we were already in the "walkers" pack. That means I am running on the grass, maneuvering around fathers with strollers, and ducking when women are telling a funny stories and have to use their arms. It took me so long to run out of the pack of walkers. The race is 3.1 miles, and I ran the whole time (I don't walk, I can't walk--it's an ego thing). Though the course is very hilly, I felt much more prepared this time around as I trained for about a month. After the race, we walked around to the vendor stations and got our free nutri-grain bars, waters and bananas and headed home. It was a successful day! After I got home, I decided to eat my whole grain rice with a "pinch" of garlic. To preface this story, I really really enjoy: garlic, driving distances, getting the mail, kitties, and responding quickly to emails. That is me. This particular day I thought why would I put 1 clove of garlic in a serving of rice when I could use 3? Using 1 means I don't taste the garlic, so I figured 2 would mean I would kinda taste the garlic. Solution: 3 cloves of garlic. OH, and a 1/2 of an onion. Let's just say I'm surprised you cannot smell my breath from here. I learned my lesson...2 max! I know that garlic is known as the "wonder drug," so I made sure to tell Brad that my choice on Sunday to eat 3 cloves of garlic meant I would outlive him. He seems so excited to hear that news :) After this little experiment, I somehow found the only mint in our house, which I'm sure was taken from one of those candy jars from a hostess stand. That didn't work. I drank a lot of water. That didn't work. I even ate the chocolate syrup in the refrigerator. Poor choice. Lastly, I took a shower (we all know this is not typical for me on a weekend--I find them meaningless). Needless to say, the solution for eating too much garlic is time. Finally today I cannot smell it on my breath or on my hands. Lesson learned.
So that's our exciting weekend. I hope you enjoy the picture of the race. Also, please note I am restricting kitty pictures this week. It's hard, but I'm doing it for the readers. All 2 of them. Perhaps there will be a new posting mid week with updates of the furballs. Stay tuned!


Alex, Amanda, Myself