Crystal & Race for the Cure

In 2004, Crystal walked her first Race For The Cure. She walked for her Grandma Bee, who was a survivor.  When I told her brother, David that she was walking her 1^st 5K at the tender age of nine (she was actually two shy of being ten), he told me that I would have to carry her across the finish, if not most of the race. I picked up the t-shirts and bibs before the race. Crystal spent the night before the race at my condo and early the next morning we rode Trax. When we got to the Gateway, Crystal filled out her “I race in celebration of” and then had me pin her bib and card on the back of her t-shirt. She was walking for her Grandma Bee. I wore my bib in front and my cards in the back.  I was walking for Crystal’s Grandma too and my cousin’s neighbor who had been recently diagnosed with cancer. I was also walking in memory of Dixie Crystal, who was the reason I started walking the Race for the Cure years before.  About the time Dixie died of breast cancer, I got a pamphlet in the mail inviting to race in the Susan G. Komen (probably because I done the Salt Lake Classic).  Even though I didn’t wear a card at that time, I walked in her memory. Dixie was a teacher aid in high school and we grew up in the same ward. During the race I had Crystal call Grandma Bee on my cellphone and when we crossed the finish line, I had Crystal call David to tell him of her accomplishment.  Even when we got home, Mark, another brother, couldn’t believe she walked the whole 3.1 miles in less than an hour. I like to think that Grandma Bee got Crystal to the finish line, but then Crystal is no quitter. Besides, she had to prove all of her brothers wrong.

Crystal and I walked again the next year, but we didn’t walk together again until two years after that.  In 2007, Crystal not walked for Grandma Bee, but her Mom also. I walked for my sister, who just either finishing or just finished cancer treatments. When Crystal found her Mom was a survivor, she was bent and determined to run the Race for the Cure, but since Mom and most of her sisters were walking, Crystal had to walk the whole 5K. 

Due to a busy life, that was Crystal’s last Race for the Cure. She has since ran a few Salt Lake Half-Marathons and a few other races. But if she ever decides to do the Salt Lake Race for the Cure, I doubt her brothers will question her ability to run the whole 3.1 miles. After all she endured 13 miles.