A record field of more than 7,100 girls and women, many of them with stories about surviving breast cancer, losing a loved one to breast cancer or helping friends with breast cancer, raised a record amount of money for the fight against breast cancer at the 18th annual event.
They created neither a mob scene nor a sob scene -- though to be sure, there was a bit of crying -- but a scene breathtaking in its enormity and emotion.
"It's a beautiful celebration of survivorship," said Lupe Marroquin, a member of the race committee since the beginning. "That's a lot of love happening."
A lot of love, and a lot of pink -- the signature color of breast cancer.
With about 23 percent more participants on than last year's record field of 5,487, this wasn't a sea of pink. It was a planet of pink. Pink T-shirts, pink tights, pink scarfs, pink boas, pink tiaras, pink knee socks, pink necklaces, pink tutus, pink headbands, pink hoodies, pink leis. Hot pink, pale pink, dark pink, tie-dyed pink.
Race winner Kelsey Jones got into the spirit of things by wearing a bright pink visor for the five-mile run.
A Seward High graduate who runs for a club team in Denver, Jones, 28, led from start to finish to win in 28 minutes, 19 seconds. She enjoyed a healthy margin over UAA teammates Shoshana Keegan and Hallidie Wilt, whose sprint finish ended with Keegan claiming second in 29:10 and Wilt finishing two seconds later in 29:12.
Mary Barrett of Palmer, 56, was the top finisher among survivors of breast cancer, who wore pink hats and received pink carnations after they passed under the inflatable pink arch that marked the finish line. Barrett finished 41st overall in 34:52 to lead a record field of survivors that numbered almost 400. The previous record, set last year, was 310.
Like so many of the runners and walkers, Wilt pinned a card to the back of her shirt in honor of her Auntie Jonell. Thousands of similar cards honored thousands of other women, some who are dead because of breast cancer, some who are battling it and some who are -- knock on wood -- recovered from it.
A group of 55 women wore matching T-shirts honoring Renate Schnell of Anchorage, who is at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona getting her third round of chemotherapy.
"She had breast cancer 10 years ago," said team member Aimee Agnew, "and she just got diagnosed again a month ago."
Shirley Buchholz, 69, and daughter Beckie Oliva, 49, wore matching "Save the Boobies" T-shirts. Buchholz was diagnosed in 1996 and Oliva in 2004, and they joined the crowd to celebrate their survival and to contribute to a cause they have a personal stake in.
"It raises money that helps," Buchholz said.
"Awareness too," Oliva said, who then passed on her own awareness tip.
"Mammograms are a wonderful tool, but they're only a tool," she said. "You need to check yourself. A mammogram didn't find my lump."
Neither did the self-exams Oliva did while in the shower. The cancer was in her lower quadrant, a place where lumps can go undetected in self-exams unless you're lying down, she said. And so it was her husband who found it while "doing what husbands do," Oliva said.
The race, which takes donations for breast cancer research and education rather than charging an entry fee, raised a record $158,000, race director Missy Anderson said.
More than $2.5 million has been raised since 1993, when the Run for Women began in protest as an alternative to the once-popular and now-defunct Alaska Women's Run. The "rebel run," as Marroquin calls it, was created the same year the Women's Run raised entry fees while trimming a number of its frills. When runners learned that some of the money was being used to pay the race director a handsome salary, a group of them decided to stage an all-volunteer race that benefited a cause.
The cause they picked was breast cancer, which other than non-melanoma skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In recent years, about 190,000 American women are diagnosed and about 40,000 die of the disease annually.
The Run for Women was an immediate hit, drawing 758 its inaugural year despite limited planning and publicity. It has grown steadily ever since, setting a record last year with 5,487 participants.
This year's turnout blew away that mark. Organizers pitched a "Bring a friend in 2010" campaign via Facebook and Twitter, urging last year's participants to recruit a friend to come with them this year.
That's how the "Breast Friends" team swelled from 8 members last year to 19 this year, team member Corey Imlah said.
"We got people from our bowling league to join us, and co-workers," she said. "We even had team meetings."
Teams ranged in size from a handful to a horde -- the Rack Pack was a party of two; the Alaska National Guard Pretty in Pink team had 126 -- and represented businesses, churches, non-profits and individuals. Fifty percent of the participants were members of a team, Anderson said.
Anderson, who is in her final year as race director, said she thinks the race can hit the 10,000 mark next year.
That would require nearly a 50 percent increase for a race that this year enjoyed nearly a 25 percent increase over last year's record. That's a lot of new converts, but the Run for Women has a knack for inspiring women.
Among the newly inspired is Agnew, who came to the race because Renate Schnell is the mother of her best friend. It was her first Run for Women, but it won't be her last.
"I'll be here every year," she said.
Find Beth Bragg online at adn.com/contact/bbragg or call 257-4335.
18th annual Alaska Run for Women
Saturday results
(top 100)
1) Kelsey Jones 28:19; 2) Shoshana Keegan 29:10; 3) Hallidie Wilt 29:12; 4) Leslie Varys 29:20; 5) Holly Brooks 29:52; 6) Kristi Waythomas 30:17; 7) Briana Sullivan 31:06; 8) Debbie Cropper 31:28; 9) Letitia Luch 32:06; 10) Mara Rabinowitz 32:07; 11) Susan Bick 32:25; 12) Sarah Freistone 32:29; 13) Jacqueline Lutz 32:32; 14) Jennifer Henderson 32:36; 15) Holly Kopp 32:57; 16) Tsaina Mahlen 33:05; 17) Larrell Lockard 33:23; 18) Danielle Dalton 33:32; 19) Kathryn Povolo 33:43; 20) Victoria Clark 33:49; 21) Mandy Vincent-Lang 33:51; 22) Erin Jordan 33:57; 23) Haley Hughes 33:58; 24) Jen Schrage 34:00; 25) Nicky Rose 34:08; 26) Cheryl Moores-Pauls 34:12; 27) Jenette Northey 34:12; 28) Laura McDonough 34:16; 29) Rachel McCartan 34:17; 30) Kristin Haas 34:21; 31) Elizabeth Hooper 34:23; 32) Paola Banchero 34:25; 33) Marcelyn Luch 34:28; 34) Anna Dalton 34:33; 35) Polly Wheeler 34:35; 36) Delia Luch 34:38; 37) Carolyn Kirchner 34:45; 38) Lisa Dale 34:49; 39) Lori Richter 34:50; 40) Nichole Rehm 34:50; 41) Mary Barrett 34:52; 42) Alia Parker 34:53; 43) Lauren Fritz 34:56; 44) Doreen Rossberg 35:05; 45) Rosalyn Singleton 35:15; 46) Dana Diehl 35:19; 47) Kate Arduser 35:23; 48) Natasha Bergt 35:24; 49) Alex Okeson 35:28; 50) Suzanne Wheatall 35:40; 51) Lucy Swygman 35:41; 52) Erin Newton 35:43; 53) Cheyenne Applegate 35:45; 54) Christin Raymond 35:54; 55) Tina Moronell 35:57; 56) Erika Stoye 35:59; 57) Ashley Horstman 36:01; 58) Natalie Pfeifer 36:03; 59) Nikki Wray 36:04; 60) Kristy DeYong 36:05; 61) Brenda Applegate 36:13; 62) Angela Torgerson 36:15; 63) Sheila Finch 36:16; 64) Liz Wheatall 36:17; 65) Janet Mamikunian 36:21; 66) Alina Rubeo 36:22; 67) Kristi Shea 36:26; 68) Brittney Lenahan 36:28; 69) Hannah Xavier 36:29; 70) Andi Svendsen 36:37; 71) Wendy Mitchell 36:40; 72) Lisa Johnston 36:41; 73) Kristin Krom 36:47; 74) Melanie Redington 36:47; 75) Sarah Hunter 36:48; 76) Sara Miller 36:48; 77) Angie Meahan 36:51; 78) Michelle Witt 36:53; 79) Janet Tune 36:54; 80) Jaime Locke 36:55; 81) Kayle Blackmore 36:56; 82) Catalina Myers 37:03; 83) Briannah Pugh 37:05; 84) Lesley Yamauchi 37:06; 85) Kamie Miller 37:15; 86) Veronica Beagan 37:15; 87) Janey Wahlman 37:17; 88) Tammy Weaver 37:27; 89) Kristina Woolston 37:30; 90) Brittany Walker 37:30; 91) Claire Trujillo 37:31; 92) Anna Trujillo 37:32; 93) Cindy Freistone 37:32l 94) Linda Westwick 37:37; 95) Hannah Sandstrom 37:40; 96) Betsy Winkle 37:40; 97) Sally Kessler 37:43; 98) Darlene Cooper 37:45; 99) Katie Way 37:48; 100) Nadine Price-Schrue 37:48.
TOP 15 FINISHERS 1) Kelsey Jones 28:19 2) Shoshana Keegan 29:10 3) Hallidie Wilt 29:12 4) Leslie Varys 29:20 5) Holly Brooks 29:52 6) Kristi Waythomas 30:17 7) Briana Sullivan 31:06 8) Debbie Cropper 31:28 9) Letitia Luch 32:06 10) Mara Rabinowitz 32:07 11) Susan Bick 32:25 12) Sarah Freistone 32:29 13) Jacqueline Lutz 32:32 14) Jennifer Henderson 32:36 15) Holly Kopp 32:57
TOP 5 SURVIVORS 1) Mary Barrett 34:52 2) Janet Tune 36:52 3) Lesley Yamauchi 37:06 4) Beth Boling 38:37 5) Liisa Morrison 41:14
Important warning about e-mails purporting to be from the adn.com staff.