Yours Truly, Julie: Fight Like A Girl!

3:45 a.m. is E-A-R-L-Y... In case you are not familiar with this hour, as I am not. However, this morning it was both necessary and worthwhile to get up at this time. Even after going to bed around 1 a.m. Good planning on my part, obviously...

I woke up @ 3:45 this morning in order to leave the house by 4 a.m. I wanted to leave an adequate amount of time to get ready ;) I rolled out of bed, put on leggings, shorts, a t-shirt, sweatpants, a hoodie, and of course pink, knee-high socks. I donned all of this clothing in order to be prepared for the Susan G. Komen, "Race for the Cure"--the annual breast cancer 5k uptown Charlotte. In a refreshing, yet drastically cooler Fall morning!

My mother is an amazing woman. And she has an amazing job. A tough one, but an amazing one. She is the navigator for the breast health center in Concord. Basically she is the nurse at the mammogram center. She reads the biopsies of patients and then translates the results. And she has to tell people that they have cancer. And walk them through the process of treatment. And hold their hand. And try to reassure them of something that no one in the world is quite sure of yet--how to BEAT cancer. Ugh...

But, if there was a person that should do this. It should be my mom.

Anyway. Back to the earliest morning of my life.

My mom, myself, my sister, sister-in-law and my mom's friend all piled into the car and set off for uptown Charlotte this morning. We needed to arrive extra early because my mom had to host a table to represent the Breast Health Center of Northeast Medical Center. She had to man this table for the pre-race hoopla along with many other vendors. Before the race all of the racers get to walk around and get information on breast cancer awareness, collect freebies, take team pictures and eat bananas and chocolate chip cookies at 6 in the morning.

Since we got there SUPER early, we scored all kinds of awesome free stuff! And this also gave us time to decorate ourselves further in pink ridiculousness. We had ribbons in our hair, mardi gras beads, pink stickers under our eyes (thanks NewBalance!), pink pom poms that we spun a wheel for (thanks Bank of America!), pink wrist bands, pink bracelets, pink pink pink...you get the idea.

We were decked out and ready to race. Well, walk. We didn't do the competitive side of the race and run. We opted to walk the 3.something miles. Big deal, I know...haha. But it was a nice, leisurely stroll through uptown. The weather was comfortable (with our leggings & jackets), the sun was out, we were serenaded by a brass band playing "Don't Stop Believin'" at one point (nothing like a little Journey hit to keep you going!), and cheered on by lots of volunteers and men dressed in drag! Yeah...weird. Yet, hilarious! Men in dresses with wigs and boobs? Obviously a perfect addition to fighting breast cancer.

It was SO fun! A definite must-do from now on out. My mom has done it every year, but for some reason I have never done this specific walk. (?) But, it was my favorite by far. There were over 16,000 people participating! Everyone seems to get really into it. I've never seen so many pink tu-tus in my life! And hilarious slogans all dealing with boobies like "Peace, Love, Boobies." And "Team Ta-Ta's". And "Team Boob Tube." And "F-it! Feel it, Find it, Fix it." And my personal favorite "Save Second-Base." There were a million creative boob jokes! It was nice to see the light-side of such a sad and super-common disease.

Basically....you should do this walk next year. At the end, all of the breast-cancer survivors in attendance get to release pink balloons in to the air at the end of closing ceremonies. It is such a simple yet powerful effect. All of these balloons being released into the beautiful sky. An metaphor-esque ending to a wonderful day.

Jenna and I were able to walk in honor of our grandmother, Thelma Sorensen (my dad's mother), who has been cancer-free for over 40 years! It was a great day. It felt good to support a great cause. And to see so many others participating. We learned this morning that every 69 seconds, someone dies of breast cancer. October is Breast Cancer Awareness month: Let's all "fight like a girl" and work towards a cure for breast cancer!

It.was.early.