And They're Off!

The race is on! The Inaugural Pink Elephants on Parade Virtual 5K race weekend officially begins today and goes through Monday, April 22nd. Of course that's just a time frame in place for registration and to get medals out after - we have already had a few eager beavers complete their mileage already! Grats to them! These beauties will be on their way to you very soon...

As for me, I'll be running at 9AM on Saturday, April 20th with some local friends through a nearby park before celebrating with circus themed goodies and Dumbo's bathwater refreshments (pink champagne and lemonade - yum!). I hope you have a fun time on your run as well. I would love it if you posted any pre/post/during photos on the Facebook Event Page! It'd be a great way to encourage the other 73 folks running with you. :) That's right - we have a total of 74 participants! So exciting.

While Pink Elephants on Parade already has a larger purpose - raising funds for Team in Training and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society for cancer research and patient services - it's impossible to have a run this week without thinking of Boston. It's hard to fathom such senseless violence against so many innocent people, but the fact that this was a joyful crowd at a celebratory event makes it even more heart-wrenching. The running community has been understandably rife with emotions, but mainly we wish there was something more that we could do in response to this tragedy. Which is so similar to the feelings behind TNT as well.

An amazing article written by Laura Williams on Girls Gone Sporty breaks down 6 ways (and reasons) we should commemorate Boston. There are plenty of runs out there now in honor of Boston and many folks are also dedicating their regular runs to Boston. So I hope all us Pink Elephants can do the same - keep the families and friends of the runners of the Boston Marathon and the emergency responders and the people of Boston in general in mind during your mileage this week. While the victims heal and law enforcement continues their investigation, we can do our own small part to stand up against terrorism by not allowing it to change us negatively. My favorite quote from Laura's article is "The ultimate act of defiance in the face of fear is to keep on keeping on."

So keep on, Pink Elephants! And thank you so much for your participation in this 5K!