Another cause that is close to my heart is the NOCC, which is the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition. I became acquainted with this cause after a dear friend of mine, Lannie told us she had ovarian cancer. Luckily it was detected in the earlier stages, they were able to do a hysterectomy and remove all the cancer. She was one of the lucky ones!
This is our group, we are the Lannie's Ladies!
Now on to the race recap. This was the 4th year we have done this race so we had a lot of expectations that it would be similar to the past year's event. They changed the venue and a lot of the sponsors pulled out or didn't renew. I am not sure what exactly happened this year, but balls were dropped. We all signed up to the 5k event. In the past it was all the same. The runners could run and the walkers started right behind them. Well, this apparently they only wanted to runners to do the 5k. If you chose to sign up to walk, you were only supposed to do the 1.5 mile course. Well, none of our group got that memo, they all went in expecting to do the 5k. They let the walkers start after the runners were on the course for a good 15-20 minutes. It was a a loop that you had to do 5 times. On my 3rd lap, they were still standing there waving me on. So when I finished my run, which was incidentally 3.39 miles, not 3.1, they started the festivities shortly after that.
All the survivors were gathered on the stage and celebrated. It was a touching moment, however, there was one glaring omission, Lannie was still on the course, trying to complete her 5k. So when she came through on another loop, she saw the large crowd and realized that she was late. I had to break it to her that it was over. She was so hurt. My heart hurt FOR her. We are all there for this most amazing, wonderful woman who survived cancer. She kicked cancer's ass and she wanted her place on the stage. So of course Terie and myself had to do something and sought out the race director to right this wrong. She felt awful and said they could get all the survivors to re-gather on the stage AFTER all the door prizes and awards for runners were passed out. By this point, Lannie and all the ladies were just over it. Feeling dejected we all gathered ourselves and headed to the nearest Cracker Barrel. This has become a tradition, every year we run or walk for Lannie and reward ourselves with Cracker Barrel.
So at the end of the day, it was not the best race experience, but the point was still the same. We gathered around a friend that we adore and we rally, because we are happy she is alive and I will walk, run, hike, bike, row, ski, hop on one foot, whatever she wanted us to do, to show that we honor her and how much of a bad ass diva she is for kicking cancer's ass! Go Lannie, Go!
Now I want to share some important facts with you about Ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer has very vague symptoms, it is important as a woman to make yourself familiar with them. It could save your life some day!
Here is a list of the symptoms, please pass them on...
- Bloating
- Trouble eating or feeling full quickly
- Pelvic or abdominal pain
- Feeling the need to urinate urgently or often
- Fatigue
- Upset stomach stomach or heartburn
- Back pain
- Pain during sex
- Constipation
- Menstrual changes
- Genetic predisposition
- Personal or family history of breast, ovarian or colon cancer
- Increasing age
- Undesired infertility
- All women are at risk
- Symptoms exist - they can be vague, but increase over time
- Early detection increases survival rate
- A Pap Test DOES NOT detect ovarian cancer
