This past weekend, my family and I participated in the LiveStrong Challenge outside Philadelphia, PA. This was our third year of participation and it was terrific. This continues to be one of the most inspiring and rewarding activities I have ever been a part of.
My mom flew to the East Coast for the occasion (oh, and to see her offspring) and we were joined for the event by her friend Anthony, who lives in the area.
The day before the event, my mom and I drove up to Philly from DC (sis and her fam drove separately to stop at a train village) to pick up our packets and visit the LiveStrong Village, where all the sponsors set up booths and occasionally give away free stuff. There was also a "mission tent" operated by the LiveStrong folks, where participants could write messages to honor those in their lives who have had or are currently living with cancer, or simply to give a shout out to the world. All the message cards were then hung on lines in the tent.
Here's our note for my brother Jeremy, who died of melanoma in 2006.
The morning of the event, we got there on-time and then waited forever for it to start, which gave us plenty of time to take photos! Here's a shot of some of the 6,500 participants waiting for the event to start.
Holly and yours truly. Check out my awesome (if I do say so myself) self-designed Hello Kitty jersey.
This is the back of my jersey at the start of the event.
Jason repined everything at one of the rest stops to uncover the cycling Hello Kitty on the back.
Jason and I both rode our bikes: He did 70 miles and I did 45. I had originally planned to do 70 as well, but when I saw how hilly the course was, I elected to do 45. My training all summer really paid off. The last time I did this course (two years ago), the hills seemed constant, as well as terribly steep and daunting, and I ended up walking my bike up most of them. This year, however, the hills didn't seem so bad, and I only had to get off the bike to walk up one hill--a long, steep, and bumpy hill that resembled a line graph of the rate of increase of our national debt in the last year.
My mom, sister and her kids, and Anthony all did the 5K walk. The boys brought their bikes (hence, Elijah's bike helmet) and rode them for the first half mile or so, at which point they apparently got tired and hitched a ride with Eden in the stroller. (Check out my sister's blog for more on that.)
The cycling course was beautiful, taking us through the bucolic countryside outside Western Philadelphia, through semi-residential areas and past cornfields and farms.
I was feeling so good that I bypassed the first rest stop and zoomed on ahead to the second, where I met up with Jason.
Then it was more gorgeous greenery, two more rest stops, and plenty of hills to the finish line.
VICTORY!!! (aka, Bring on the cow bell!)
Many thanks to everyone who donated to my LiveStrong fundraising account. Thanks to your generosity, I raised more than $1,000, which will help people now living with cancer, and support research to find a cure.
Here's to many more LiveStrong Challenges and to all of us living strong every day. I hope to see you all there next year.
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