LiveStrong Run (10k) 2011

Imagine a World Without Cancer.

The weather was inclement the night before, and the 4am assembly time was too ridiculously early. A diligent-enough runner would have to wake up at least 2am to get ready, eat a little, stretch, drive to the race venue across town. All the hopes made the weather clear and I arrived a few minutes before assembly time. A couple of runners clad in the same yellow singlet were sitting by the gutters. This was the Fort at 4am. Around the corner, a group of young, mestizo teenagers were still huddled around a set of car loudspeakers thumping dance music. The race organizers, on the other hand, had just begun setting up their starting arch and lining up their orange cones.

By assembly time, they moved everyone to the other side of arch, the announcer pleading clumsily, "We run to that direction." It was already past the supposed gun start. There was no fancy ceremonial launch, except for everybody chanting something like "1, 2, 3... go" with the guy who held the microphone.

Despite the catchy campaign materials and the profound relevance of its cause - this was the smallest, most barely-organized race I've ever ran. It's also been a while since I've ran the Fort-McKinley route and I've always found the uphill roads a little cumbersome. Not to the merit of our race organizers, parts of the running path (particularly around the cemetery) were literally pitch-black and zero-visibility at past 4am. Maybe it actually helped quicken my pace. If I didn't run fast enough to follow the guy ahead of me I would have been led off-track. The roads weren't entirely closed, so there were also vehicles along the route that increased the perils in this run.

But it's not like I'm not used to that, because I've ran alone in similar avenues or highways. Hydration was also bad, sure, but I know that all I really need was at least 1 quick and decent gulp for a 10k. And ulitmately: more than half of the registration fee was paid for my wife's company, and she paid for the rest. That's on top of all the encouragement and inspiration she gives to my running. I was really after the slick-looking singlet that said Imagine the World Without Cancer. I was running for that idea.

I remember what I was running for, and in organized racers - what others were running for. People had this stuck at the back of those slick-looking singlets:







However bad the route was or how poor hydration and runner-safety is, I managed its longest distance 10k category in a good-enough 55 minutes. They seemed to hand me all that I needed at that time: a banana, a bottle of water. This button was a welcome bonus.


The morning was beautiful and the strangely good cosmic vibes reverberated. Imagine a world without cancer.

What I ran for was an idea. The remembrance of seeing all those names in the stickers at the backs of runners I chased or passed. However this race was organized, these runners I finished with all look seriously proud.