Komen Race for the Cure

Since 2008, Sam and I have been participating in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.  The event raises money for the Los Angeles County affiliate of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure.  For over 15 years, the Komen Los Angeles County affiliate has raised $8.2 million to provide community-based grants to local organizations providing breast cancer screening, education and treatment services and to help fund national breast cancer research programs.  A major focus of the Komen Los Angeles County affiliate is to help uninsured and underinsured women and men who have symptoms of breast cancer and are facing barriers to accessing health care, particularly women and men under 40.

Before participating in the Race for the Cure, I didn’t know that men are also affected by breast cancer.  Although breast cancer in men is relatively rare, men are still susceptible to developing breast cancer.   Additionally, I didn’t know that breast cancer is a major concern among women of Asian descent.  According to the Center for Disease Control, breast cancer is the most common cancer among Asian women.  And it is the second leading cause of death among Asian women.

2011 marks our fourth year doing the Race.  It is a 5K (3.1 miles) track.  The first two years, the Race took place at the Rose Bowl and the route circled its perimeter.  In 2010, the Race relocated to Dodger Stadium and now participants snake around its giant parking lot to complete the course.  During our first three years, we participated as walkers.  But this year we decided to try running.  Not having trained or done any practice runs, we really didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into.  And bike training doesn’t really count since that uses different muscles in the body.  But we figured that maybe running would be good cross-training with our biking, so why not give it a try.  At least that sounded nice in theory.

So we joined our friend Patricia, a Board member of the Komen Los Angeles affiliate, and attempted our first 5K run.  The first mile was really tough for me, especially since there was a little bit of an uphill climb right at the start.  I almost wanted to give up.  I felt really out of shape.  Fortunately, I felt slightly better after hitting mile two, although I was still huffing and puffing and trying not to pass out.  I looked around and I was the only idiot wearing a jacket.  I was sweating profusely.  It wasn’t funny.  Eventually, we made it.  And to our surprise, we completed it without stopping.  We were totally winded at the finishing line, but I was happy to see a buffet table of water, juices, granola bars, apples and bananas waiting for us.  We ran a “respectable” 11-11.5 minute per mile pace.

We also met up with our friend Bonnie later, whose teenage daughter brought out her entire basketball team.  One of the moms has breast cancer and they all wanted to come out to do the Race to support her.  I was utterly amazed and inspired by them.