A Stitcher's Snippets: I Race.....

RACE FOR CURE

I race...in memory of my mom who was the bravest, strongest woman I've ever known.

I race...in honor of mom's best friend (Betty) who is a 30+ year survivor.

I race...in hopes that a cure will be found so this race will no longer be necessary.

Yesterday was the annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure held in Des Moines. It was a ~~chilly~~ downright cold morning with a temperature of 29 degrees with windchill. So much for moving it ahead a couple of weeks to hopefully have warmer weather. Thankfully the sun was shining brightly instead of the foggy damp weather we had been experiencing.

This is a cause I am passionate about. I have been participating in the fundraising portion of this race for 14 years (right after mom's first diagnosis with breast cancer) but this was my 6th year walking it. I started walking this race when my mom was re-diagnosed with breast cancer. Sadly she lost her battle just 8 months later. There is not a day that goes by that I don't miss my mom's wisdom, sense of humor and her ability take you worst day and have you laughing about it by the end of the conversation. Oh the laughs we have had together!

As it happens, mom and I had lots of conversations during those last 8 months and during one such conversation I promised mom I would continue my endeavors to live a healthier lifestyle. I even went to far as to tell her I would be running this race one day for her. To this day I'm not sure what I was thinking when I uttered those words.

I really had no intention for that day to be yesterday. I had not been training to run at all. Just doing my usual walking and classes at the Y. Okay so I found it easier to jog the hills on the trails in the park but would not classify it in any way as training. It just seems like the stars had aligned for it to be yesterday.

When we lined up to start, it ended up when they closed the gap between walkers and runners before the starting gun I was in those 2 rows where walkers and runners are shoulder to shoulder. Well when the gun went off I thought why not see how far I could go totally expecting to go no farther than the first block down the hill. Imagine my surprise to be all the way to the bottom of the hill and around the corner and still running. It gave me the encouragement to keep running and managed to run all the way to the halfway point which is where my brother and sister-in-law were providing security (local Harley group provides security along the entire route). Stopped for my hugs, encouragement and photo with my brother and off I went again still running.

After making the next turn into the 20 mph winds I ended up alternating walking/running as running into the winds made it hard to breathe. By the time we reach the last 1/2 mile everyone was walking as we met up with 1 mile walkers and it was just curb to curb people and no way to run through the crowd. Not to mention the band at the corner many people were stopping at to dance and sing clogging up the street.

I know I did not run the entire 5K but there are some promises that don't have to be kept to the nth degree. Mom would have considered this a done deal and promise kept as I ran most of the race.

STITCHING

I am continuing to make excellent progress on Halloween Cubes by Primitive Hare. I am currently on the Letter O and expect to see a finish on it today and a start on W. It is going to be tight getting them done for display this year but all other stitching projects have been set aside in hopes I will get there sooner than later.

READING

I have also set all other reading aside except for my recent start of Gone Girl by by Gillian Flynn. I know the movie is set to be released this week and we have date night on Friday night and suspect this will be the movie my husband wants to see. I want to have the book finished before then. This also will be a small miracle considering how busy my week is this week.

GRASS IS GROWING