I’m finally getting around to get these pictures posted.

As I mentioned earlier in the week, on Saturday Christine and I headed up to the hills with Sage and Maggie for The Winter Pineapple Classic, a 5K in North Bend. It was another fundraiser for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. We’ve started to notice that there are a lot of these around, and that most of them are 5K’s or Stair Climbs or whatnot. We think it has something to do with the fact that these “blood cancers” tend to strike young people, so the fundraisers tend to get started around  activities and active lifestyle stuff and whatnot. Something for people to get out and DO. Or it could just be a coincidence.

But I digress. The four of us met up with a few others in North Bend. Christine and Maggie’s (and Ryan’s) trainer Kailyn, his husband, and a couple of their friends.

Team Lange

Shortly before the race started Tanya arrived to hang out with me while the others were running.

The team was in the second wave of the day at 9:15. The event started at 9:00am and scheduled start times were every fifteen minutes until noon. There were a ton of people there when we got there and there were a ridiculous number of people there when we left, and they were still rolling in. It’s a pretty big event! Last year there were over 3000 participants and they raised over $465,000 for the LLS. This year they were expecting to beat both numbers.

Here goes Wave 2:

There is a reason its called the The Pineapple Classic. Every team must carry a pineapple with them.

Starting off, grabbing the Pineapple

What was nice about this race is that it took place over a pretty wide open field, which meant that Tanya and I were able to freely walk around and watch them several times as they made their way around the course. We just cut through the middle.

OH, and I did I mention that it’s also an Obstacle Course !!!!

Not our people, but this was the first obstacle

Again, not our people, but you get the idea

Once Tanya and I figured out the layout of the course, we were able to put together a plan of attack in order to get ahead of them and cut them off at very points throughout the track. so instead of taking pictures of what they had gone through, we were able to get quite of few pictures of them going through the obstacles.

Stine posing for an 'action shot'

Teamwork required. Note the pineapple.

Team Lange

Team ''

It was a pretty fun event, and I was so relieved that it turned out to be a race that I could come “watch”. That was a unexpected surprise. I was pretty prepared to go sit in the car with Tanya for 20 minutes while they ran the race, but the venue was perfect to be able to run around and watch them progress through the course.

Already though, I can’t wait until I can participate next year. And the year after that. And the year after that. As each of these events come and go I can already see myself returning to them year after year. And each year I’ll think back on that first year, when I couldn’t participate because I had cancer, but now I can participate as an example to those who at one time like me, could not. It’s organizations like the LLS who have donated hundreds of millions of dollars to the cancer research. And because of the events like this I had a form of cancer that was treatable and curable. It will certainly keep me coming back, and will keep me donating to the LLS for life. Because of them, I can.