Each November, thousands of runners and walkers congregate in World's Fair Park in Knoxville to participate in the Buddy's Race Against Cancer. This year was my fourth time racing Buddy's and I'd have to say it was probably one of my favorite races to date.
The event began with touring the multiple booths set up in the park and taking pictures with my teammates. This year I ran with a group from my most recent job at a locally owned café/deli/market. It was really great to see all of my former coworkers and run the race with them!
As we had a few walkers in our group, we decided to begin a fair distance behind the start line. This made for an interesting few minutes of walking and jogging after the gun went off. In fact, it took me almost 3 minutes to cross the start line. The next 1/2 mile or so was spent trying to dodge the numerous walkers in my path. While this may have slowed me down, it definitely added some variety to the run.
Once I had passed the majority of the walkers I was in race mode.
I had not realized how much I miss racing. To be honest, my runs had not been great in the couple weeks leading up to Buddy's. I feel like I may have tried to increase my mileage too quickly in the previous months, and as a result most of my runs just felt crappy. I had basically cut down to running 3 days a week, and any mileage exceeding 3.5 miles was painful.
During the race itself I felt fantastic! I had so much fun racing, and overall I was pleased with my time.
However, my favorite part of the day was seeing so many people out and running for a really great cause. Everyone knows someone who has battled cancer; it is a disease that affects everyone in our society. I found it incredibly inspiring to see so many survivors participating in the race, and I can't wait to run it again next year.
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