Colleen McKenney to Participate in Boston Sixty Mile Susan B. Komen Race Fall 2007

Around the country the Susan B. Komen Race for the Cure has become an annual event. Not all the races are equal. Some are short fun runs for the kids whose legs barely reach the ground. Others are competition 5K and 10K runs for people who have the stamina or think they have the stamina to run that kind of event.

All of the events are intended to make it possible for people to race at the level they are able and at the distance that they feel they need to.

With a sister and a wife who have both had multiple fights with cancer, I am learning a lot about how finding meaningful solutions to this scourge is important

The Susan B. Komen Fund was begun because, when Susan was going though her battle with breast cancer, many of the resources needed by patients and families did not exist. The fund provides needed assistance to researchers, patients, and families not provided by other cancer organizations during the search for a cure. Most of the funds are given in small grants with specific goals in mind. It is a different approach to managing the problem of seeking a cure while helping those who are in need of help now.

When Susan was going through her fight it was a lonely time for women with Breast Cancer. There were few races for the cure. The big cancer organizations were raising funds for some types of research, but many of the things patients needed to make it through the day were not available. It was a lonely time for Breast Cancer patients when the Komen sisters began their fight.

Now that fight involves women (and men) in every part of the country. My sister is one of those women who will be participating on the twenty fifth anniversary of her first fight with cancer. She won the fight, but lost a bit of her figure in the battle. In those days the surgeons only had one solution to Breast Cancer and it was always extreme.

She has taken on various cancers five times over the last twenty five years. My wife is in the middle of her second fight in eight years. Each fight tends to leave the survivor with a little less. The Susan B. Komen organization is a way of these women fighting back and helping others fight back so that everyone has a better chance in the fight.

These are some excerpts from her regular report on her training for the walk. She is walking with a group that call themselves "The Pink Angels".

"Angels walked 15 miles in 6 hours, with enough water to float a steamship, preparing to walk 60 miles in 3 days August 3, 4 and 5 for the
Susan G. Komen Fund for Breast Cancer.

The training walks for the walk are going well.

So many amazing women! They walk without hair, without energy but not without hope.

The past weekend I walked 12 miles on Saturday and then 15 on Sunday. I have learned a few things about water...it is not a good thing to run out of.

At the 10 mile mark on Sunday I fell behind the group and was feeling poorly. I did not equate that with the fact that I had run out of water.

When I caught up with the group I was in tough shape. All the symptoms one wants to avoid. It took a few miles and three more bottles of water with electrolyte added to begin to recover.

So! I will be carrying more water and the powdered re-energizer from now on.

I think I could give a short seminar on blister care and maintenance too. The more I walk the longer it takes me to prepare my feet for the trek. Moleskin, band aids, cotton padding body glide, duct tape...it takes longer to dress my feet that the rest of me!

This weekend we plan to hit our first 20 mile mark.

Monica's mom is doing well after her surgery and will be starting radiation soon."

This was the latest update from my sister.

My sister will be participating in a sixty mile three day race this fall in the Boston area. She is doing so in celebration of fighting off cancer five times in the last twenty five years. She is also doing so in support of her son's mother-in-law (Monica's Mom) who is in an active fight with the disease. I have included her Komen link as the third link here.