Undy 5000 - 2010

The day for the Undy finally arrived.  This year it was a bit more stressful to be the team captain, but I think that was mostly because of everything going on in my personal life, and the fact that we were leaving for vacation the next day.  Everything turned out great and our team raised $2870.00!!  I was so proud of how much we raised as a team.  Our team helped make this year's Undy 5000 in Phoenix one of the most successful, raising over $100,000.00 in total.

I was unable to run this year because of all the medical stuff we had going on, but I was super impressed with our team's runners.  Sydney has been walking/jogging a few miles a night for the last couple of years.  She always tells me she is running a bit here and a little bit there, but not the entire way.  I always tell her I know she could run the whole thing if she wanted to.  She always smiles and says she can't.  She has been wanting to run in the Undy for months, so I told her to just run.  I knew she had worked hard enough to finish the race, it was just a matter of telling her brain she could do it.  Well, Syd DID run the entire race and she did it in under 30 minutes.  She did amazingly well for someone who had never run more than a mile in one shot.  I was so proud of her!!

Sarah, my sister-in-law, also trained to run the Undy.  I was so impressed by her as well.  She said she had never really run before, but she did great!!  I don't know her final time, but she looked great and I know she was proud of herself too.  That's awesome!!

My good friend, Michelle Hastings, not only ran the 5k, but she also ran the Undy.  She is the Colon Cancer Alliance chair person for Phoenix.  She has been stressed to the max for weeks...maybe months trying to get this thing organized, sponsored, publicized, etc.  She is amazing.  If you ever need a spirited fighter in your corner, Michelle is the most amazing person you could have on your side.

Two years ago, the Undy 5000 made it's debut in Phoenix.  Mike and I were on our honeymoon, so we were not able to participate.  I told Mike I wanted to create a team every year after that and continue to raise money, raise awareness, and just be together as a family that is fighting this awful disease. 

This was our second year having a team, and this year our team, Rodgers' Rumps & Kim's Keesters, was bigger and better.  We raised a lot of money and we had a good time walking together.

Our shirts this year also recognized Mike's Uncle Jim Ward who lost his battle with colon cancer in early 2009.  Mike, Patrick and Ken wore photos of Jim on their shirts too.  It was nice to have some of the Buvala clan on the team this year.  I know it meant a lot to Mike for his family to be there with him.

I can't wait for next year.  I hope we can raise even more money, and recruit even more people to our team.

p.s. As I was looking through my photos from this year, I came across these photos.  Although colon cancer completely ripped apart two families, both my family and the Miller family, I have physical proof that life goes on.  We need to find a cure for this awful disease...we need to make people aware of it and we need to get people screened.  But these two photos show that God has a plan...and it's going to be okay.