On Saturday, May 10th, over 50,000 people participated in the Los Angeles EIF Revlon Run/Walk for Women's Cancers. It was an amazing experience that I'm happy to tell you about.

I arrived at Joy's house at 6:45, and she, Katherine, and I were off to the L.A. Coliseum. Over 2 hours later, we were finally parking. Yes, it took us that long to get there. The traffic coming off of the freeway was a mess. And the organizers' attempts to make things easier seemed to make the traffic even worse. We were annoyed but still optimistic.

I was off to the volunteer tent to figure out what to do. I received my volunteer t-shirt and was told to wait "over there." A guy came by and said it was too late for me to do my appointed job (water stop #1), but I could help him out by handing out medals. Soon a group of us had assembled, and we headed over to the floor of the Coliseum to line up and hand out medals.

Soon after we'd lined up, the first runner entered the stadium. He had run the 5K in less than 15 minutes. More runners came into the stadium. Unfortunately, I was too far away from the entrance lane for anyone to take medals from me. My arms got more and more tired from holding those medals without my load getting any lighter. I was trying not to get frustrated, but I found myself getting really annoyed.

So I took matters into my own hands and walked over to the medal table. "My arms are about to fall off," I said. "Do you need help over here?" They did, and I found a new job. And could a job be any better suited for me? I untangled ribbons and organized the medal table. I also got to talk to people and watch the people coming into the stadium. I even got to see Susan, Doreen, Joy, and Katherine come across the finish line.

We had gotten there too late to see the opening activities, so we didn't get to see Tom Selleck or Carrie Ann Inaba. But I was in the Coliseum for the entire concert by the Go-Gos. It was a nice blast from the past. Plus, those women look GOOD! I was acually surprised at how good they look.

After a while, all of the medals were gone, but people were still coming into the Coliseum. I really hoped that the line of medal-hander-outers still had enough for them, 'cause we sure didn't. I was a little miffed because I know that some people had taken more than one. I even saw some volunteers wearing them. It's really sad that someone didn't get a medal because of someone else's greed.

Ah well. Enough negative talk.

We all (Joy, Katherine, Susan, Doreen, Robin, Jennifer, and I) piled into Joy's minivan and drove to the Staples Center. Why is there so much traffic on the 110 on a Saturday? Anyway, we dropped them off at their car and headed home. First we had to stop by Jack in the Box to pick up lunch.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out at Joy's place with Liza. She had chemo on Thursday, so she wasn't able to come to the walk with us. But we're already making plans for next year. It was a great time. We overate, talked, laughed, were entertained by Brian, played games on the Wii, and ate some more.

It was interesting, too, to spend time with Liza. It really drove the whole point of the walk home. One day we won't need this walk anymore, because someone will find a cure some day.

Until then, we're making plans to do this again next year. Maybe you'll join us?