i am a mass of contradictions

(photo: A. Kaplan-Myrth)

I ran the Run for the Cure for the first time today.

Given that its a fundraiser for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation I had some trepidations (check out all the pink crap on their site).

But I have been running with my10 year old son for a few months now and we were ready for our first 5km run.

And I liked that this event was non-competitive.

And CBCN did provide a significant chunk of the funding for the National Conference for Young Women Living With Breast Cancer that I attended last year.

So I signed up (but I didn't raise funds. I prefer to donate directly to my local cancer centre or to groups like Breast Cancer Action).

And I loved it.

It was a beautiful day. The atmosphere was one of tremendous goodwill. I felt good.

And I have to admit, that I got a lump in my throat when I went to the "Survivor's Tent" to collect my pink t-shirt, the one that would mark me as someone who had fought a battle with breast cancer and lived to run with my kid.

I was very touched when I was running along and a group of women yelled, "Go Pink!" as I passed them.

I loved hanging out with my son as we waited to start. I loved singing silly songs as we jumped around to warm up. And I loved holding his hand as we crossed the finish line.

I had planned on running for twenty minutes (the most we have done in our training) and then seeing how my body responded. I had hoped to run a little more than that, walk the rest and finish in under an hour.

We ran the whole thing (almost. We followed the Running Room program of - 10 minutes of running followed by 1 minute of walking - lather, rinse and repeat). A total of thirty-nine minutes from start to finish.

I finished with a huge grin on my face that lasted the whole day.

I am as proud of this run as I was of my half-marathon in 2000 (and I was as sore, tired and hungry afterwards. Bacon and eggs for lunch, pizza for dinner and lots of snacking in between).

Among the crowds waiting to start, there were many people with the names of loved ones on their shirts and the words "I'm running for..."

My son turned to me and said, "Mama, I'm running for you."

I'm so proud of both of us.

Cross-posted to Mothers With Cancer.