Jimmy Charles. At most of the races I go to I usually skip all of the pre-race stuff to get properly warmed up but for this run I enjoyed hanging out, listening to the speakers and meeting fellow cancer survivors.
Pre-race photo op with Jimmy Charles
With all of the pre-race ceremonies over the kids run went off and then we were all called to the starting line. We all posed for a starting line shot with Jimmy Charles and then we were given the go-ahead to run. Now I hadn't been training much over the prior couple of weeks since I had some skin cancer cut out of my right leg and it was infected. In fact even now, some three weeks later the spot has become infected again hampering my ability to go out and train. Even with my lack of fitness I was able to go out and run with the leaders for a while, joking and talking with them as I had run with some of them the previous year. I hit the first mile in 6:45 feeling good, mile two came and went in 6:41, and my third mile was run at a 6:55 pace but the course was short and I finished with a reasonable 19:24. I was fourth overall and first in the patient/survivor division. We all got custom finishers medals hand made by the local Zero race director Leonard Zasoski. The medals are hand-painted walnuts on a lanyard with the walnut symbolizing the prostate. I hung around the finisher's chute cheering everyone as they finished before the post-race festivities commenced.
Team Just Do It trying to fit into the picture
The event was hosted by Eytan Wallace of KGET-17 news and he was an awesome master of ceremonies. Jimmy Charles had all of the survivors and caretakers up on stage and sang his song Superman about fighting cancer. It definitely brought a tear to many eyes that were in attendance. After the different awards were handed out I was asked to give the survivors speech. I touched on my story and gave the names of famous people who had been taken from us early because of this disease. Early detection is key.
Eytan Wallace introducing me before my survivor's speech
After the awards and speeches, Jimmy Charles sang his song "We Are Warriors" before everyone headed out of the event. I would be remiss if I didn't mention a few of the hard-working people that helped put on this event. I already mentioned Leonard Zasoski, but his wife Betty and the company he works for, Colombo Construction in Bakersfield, were key to making the event a success. Zero Prostate's own Vanessa Peterson put in countless hours of work to ensure that things went as they should. Lastly, it was an honor to talk and run with fellow survivor Randall Kam(stage IV) who had just completed the New York Marathon six days earlier.
Our team headed to the parking lot for a little post-run tailgating before heading to Lengthwise Brewing for some post-race burgers and beers and a celebration of our team member Melissa's birthday. The race was a lot of fun, my only issue was the course being short. Hopefully next year the numbers are even greater and they have to rent more portable toilets.
Celebrating a great run and Melissa's birthday
