Overcrowded Race For The Cure - isn't that what everyone wants?

I pushed the boys in the annual Race For The Cure on Saturday. There were over 18K people. 18 thousand people. HOLY CATS. The strollers were to line up at the back of the pack, but I couldn't FIND the back of the pack for all of the people! So, we just lined up somewhere. I don't know how long it took us to get to the starting line, but once I started my watch, it was four minutes before I could even break into a light jog, and then for only 30 seconds. It was start, stop, start, stop, start, stop for quite some time. I was pushing them on the sidewalk, on the road, in the gutter, to the left, to the right, speed up, slow down. There were no mile makers, so I couldn't really gauge my pace. I just pushed on as fast as I could. When we rounded the corner to see the finish line, I could also see a big bottleneck at the line. Being a stickler (and rather OCD when it comes to this sort of thing), I didn't stop my watch until I crossed the line. Once we hit the bottleneck, it took a full minute to be able to cross the line. My final time was 39:49 for an average pace of 12:51mpm. This is not bad at all. In fact, I'm quite pleased with it since the last time I ran with the boys (sans crowd) my time was about 13:40mpm for the same distance. If I deduct the five minutes of purely strolling along, my pace would have been 11:14mpm. WHAT? I know that's not very scientific, but it felt like an 11:14 effort, so I'll take it.

I did manage to choke back my customary tears at the start line this year, but it was hard. Just the day before, my mom would have turned 69 had she not lost her battle to colon cancer 12 years ago. Man - 12 years. It's hard to believe that she has been gone so long. I miss her all of the time. Still. Does that ever go away?

And, on a (Bud)light(er) note, I'm swearing off all beer until after Sapper Joe is done. Wow. Have I lost my mind? Maybe, but I certainly haven't lost my rear end, and that's a very big deal.....