Absolutely Crazy Inspirational

KomenCrowd08
Originally uploaded by Food Fanatic

It's always controlled, friendly, noisy mayhem at the Komen Race and this year was no exception.
Buddy Rena and I showed up at about 7:40 and took a quick turn through the booths before entering the crowd starting the 5k non-competitive walk/run. We never did find our friend Sarah and the Jazzercisers from Fort Mill, but did see other Jazzers we recognized.

Here I am with Leslie and Shae from church. Leslie is in the pink survivor's shirt on the left. They both are also in our jazzercises classes here in Indian Land. Every year they come with their own group and every year at some point. right before the race starts, we turn around and there they are right in front of us! I'm always amazed by that. 15,000 people pack downtown Charlotte and somehow we always manage to find these two before the race without even looking for them.
Four things take me by surprise every year when I do this. One is what I just mentioned: running into people you know. The other is the enormity of the crowd, as pictured above. The third is the incredible noise. I don't record it. I should. And then post it on here. At the starting line there were all these drums. Some very good drumline. I never did actually see them. Maybe they weren't even there! Maybe it was piped in noise. But it seemed live. And the fourth is sights like this:

Thanks so much to everyone who donated to the Komen Race. I did not make my goal of $610 this year. The final total was $546. But hey, that's $546 closer to a cure, isn't it?