Relay For Life a big success

Traci, Staci, Paula (in the wig) and Amy(1st photo) Relay Posing for a goofy bride photo

The weather held off, no rain for the 24 hour Whitley County Relay For Life. It was a successful event!

Although I haven't had chemo in 3 weeks, I still have been feeling out of sorts in the mornings, but by the late afternoon and early evening, I feel like my old self again. This rang true for Saturday and Sunday. I felt blah until after lunch--probably b/c it takes a while for me to eat and digest the food these days. I had to lay down in the camper (thank you Mindy, Jon, Jordan & Madison) for a couple of hours Saturday afternoon. By the time the survivor and caregiver walk came, I was feeling better.

I walked the survivor walk with Margaret and Jeanette and when we got back to the start, I think 30 people jumped in with us to walk the next lap. Jade, Lauren, Jackson, Mom, Dad, Rach, Jamie, Grace, Kyle, Emily & Taylor, then Aunt Kathy and Uncle Kim, Seth, Mindy's family, Val, Jon, Hannah and Braden, Nikki and her boyfriend (I work with her and she gives me my B-12 shots each month), and some of my running friends jumped in! It was an emotional walk. So many people have made this battle much more bearable. There are many others who weren't able to come that pray, bring meals, send cards, and stop in. Relay For Life Luminaria service is always a good time to shed some tears and to look over the last year... and then smile, because "we" made it another year. Despite having a few more scars than I did one year ago, I'm still fighting the fight every day. Still trying to beat this cancer. Still, so thankful for the blessings God continues to give me every day.

So God has blessed me with the ability to still put one foot in front of the other and run. But I think maybe I bit off more than I could chew during the midnight mile relay that we had Sunday morning at 12:01 am. Last year our 4-some won first place. in the inaugural event..each person had to run one lap and then hand the baton off to the next runner. There weren't many teams last year and very few took the event seriously. Well this year, we had a lot more teams...teams with the likes of Gatton and Mize (fast high school boys) and we new there would be no chance at winning, so we decided to work on our team uniforms. We ended up tracking down some dresses from the 1970s and 1980s (thank you Aunt Chris). Staci had a formal gown to wear, and Kelly wore a "play dress" from Audrey for her leg. I wore the 1970s wedding gown (I wonder if Grandma Hurd made these dresses?), train and all and Paula wore the pretty peach dress that Aunt Chris wore when she married uncle Don...Paula thought I should run the first leg and call ourselves the run away brides! Paula and Staci took care in hemming up the dress with "safety pins" (that turned out not to be too safe) and bustled up the back end so it would not drag on the ground. The last words I heard were from Lisa saying--don't fall down!

On your mark, get set...Go! We were off, or maybe I should say, I went down! I ran a few yards, thinking that if I high stepped it, I wouldn't fall. I was so wrong. I got my foot caught in the newly hemmed cuff of the dress and wiped out. I had black skid marks on my nose. my hands, and this beautiful dress. I thought that maybe I broke my wrist and ribs when I fell, but as I quickly checked the injuries, I realized I was fine, just a broken ego! So I got up, hiked up the dress, and ran that lap--handed off the bouquet to Paula, then it went to Kelly, then Staci ran the last leg. We survived! Now, I have to get the dress dry cleaned and hope that it looks as good or even better than it did when Aunt Chris dropped it off. (I'm so sorry)