On Sunday, October 6, my friends and I participated in the CIBC Run for the Cure 5k. Our team was formed in support of a friend and former high school art teacher of ours that is currently battling breast cancer. She has been undergoing chemotherapy but luckily was feeling well enough to come to the event and even joined us for lunch after.
It was a beautiful day and I quickly realized I wore too many layers. There was such an overwhelmingly positive atmosphere surrounding the event. It was the first year that there has been a Surrey location, Bear Creek Park, and there was a small but enthusiastic crowd of people in white and pink shirts on the track.
I was excited to run a 5k distance after having just done the half marathon and had purchased the optional timing chip. I had recently found my old 5k time from the St Patrick’s Day 5k that I had struggled to run in 2008. My time then was 34 minutes and 32 seconds. My goal for this race was to finish in under 30 minutes, which I figured was pretty obtainable.
Most of the participants were there to casually run or walk the route but there were a few of us that were there to race. I surprised myself by finishing in 22 minutes and 13 seconds! However, my GPS watch seemed to think that the route was actually 4.5k and I’m inclined to believe it as the 1k marker was clearly around the 0.5k mark. Several people commented on this after.
Even then, it was still a remarkable time for me and I was one of the first few women to cross the finish line (keep in mind that only a small portion of people were actually racing). Out of the runners that opted for a timing chip, I came in seventh overall.
All eleven of us crossed the finish line and had great times, but our greatest accomplishment was raising over $4,500 in donations for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. In total, this year’s Run for the Cure had 130,000 participants across the country and raised $27 million for the breast cancer cause. I am proud to have been a part of that statistic.
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