Extreme Inspiration

If anyone out there ever needs some inspiration I know exactly where you can go.  This weekend I watch my wife along with a hundreds of other complete the 60km walk that is the Weekend to End Breast Cancer. This is the second year out of the last 3 that my wife has completed this event.  (She took last year off as she was a week overdue with our second child…..lame excuse I know 🙂 )

Watching this event is quite the experience. Much like a race you see people of all ages, abilities and fitness levels.  Today I saw my wife finish, 1 year after having our daughter.  I saw a Women with her daughter and granddaughter (The grandmother was 81 years old!!), a women who was due to have her 4^th baby in 2 weeks, no that is not a typo, and many others who have taken it upon themselves to make a difference, take some initiative and raise some serious money for cancer.  (In case you were wondering everyone who walks in the race has to raise at least $2000.)  For others there were different reasons for taking part in the event. Two that I can think of really stand out. 

First off there is the guy who was the last to cross the line today.  Not because he was the slowest but because he has become the unofficial face of the event. This guy (not sure of his name) has taken part in 30 of these events all across the country.  Think about that for a second, he has raised over $2000 for each of these events and travelled, I assume on his own dollar to walk the 60km in each of the cities that host the event in Canada.  Today he walked across the finish line last holding a pair of shoes that from what I heard from my wife, belonged to a woman that has completed the walk before but recently within the last year passed away from breast cancer.  I almost cried when I saw that but not quite.

The second group that stood out was the survivors. These are women who have battled cancer, won, and have found it in themselves to do something about it!  I am not sure how many of them took part this weekend but they sure looked great in their pink survivor shirts!  (Again, tears were close but I managed to not cry.)  And talk about inspiration! How can you even think about complaining that it is too cold, hot or rainy to go out for a run when there are people out there with the determination that these survivors have?

Overall it was a very motivating weekend for me one which I will remember and use during my training. 

It was a weekend that also made me very proud of my wife for completing this event for the second time. An event which I know is very close to her heart.  Seeing my son hand her a small bouquet of roses on the finishing mat was pretty amazing. (In case you didn’t notice Andrea, I had my sunglasses on when you were finishing even though it was cloudy out.)   Did I shed a tear or two…..maybe but I’m good with that. 🙂