The 2007 Komen New York City Race for the Cure® – my Running Downfall

by Bob Kopac

Lynne and I went with our friends Al and Laura Grigull to the 2007 Komen New York City Race for the Cure®. It is an annual event for us. At a previous year’s Komen race, our friend Claire Klenosky had given pink cowboy hats with pushed-up brims to all the men on our team. How did we look? Well, pilgrim, I doubt that John Wayne ever wore a pink cowboy hat. Let’s just say it was not my idea of a manly hat.

I did not want to hurt Claire’s feelings, so reluctantly I put on the hat. An amazing thing happened: I discovered it was an incredible chick magnet! Women kept asking us where we got our hats and asking if they could be members of our team. When I walked past the starting line, the announcer said, “There goes someone who is secure in his masculinity.”

I told Al that this year of course we had to run in our pink cowboy hats. So that my hat would stay on when I ran, I jury-rigged a chin strap out of string, but Al said his hat would stay on without one because he has a fat head.

Once again, the cowboy hats were incredibly popular. However, Al and I were not the only ones making a sartorial statement, as Lynne was resplendent in her pink wig and pink angel wings. Lynne and Laura went to the very front of the 22,000 runners and walkers. There they met fellow breast cancer survivor runners, including Bridget Smith of Cold Spring, NY, who looked fiercely chic in pink facial war paint.

The starting line was reserved for elite runners and for running survivors. Al and I stood 20 feet behind in the second group of runners and walkers, as we waited while the elites and the survivors started first. Five minutes later, after being entertained by Stephen Colbert of the Colbert Report, the rest of us started running and walking.

I hoped to catch up with Lynne, so I took off at a very fast pace (fast for me, anyway). I focused on a female runner right ahead of me, as I wanted to use her energy to drag me through the course. I matched her pace for the first mile, until either she accelerated or else I slowed down, or both, and I lost sight of her.

I paid dearly for my early excessive “speed”, as subsequently many runners passed me. Then, at 2½ miles into the race, Al passed me on an uphill. No matter how hard I tried to catch up to him after that, I could not because I had no energy left. Al ended up beating me by 6 seconds. And, neither of us caught Lynne or Laura.

After the race, my T-shirt was dripping wet with perspiration. I went to a fund-raising sales booth and purchased a dry black T-shirt with a breast cancer ribbon emblem and the words “REAL MEN WEAR PINK”. The combination of that T-shirt and the pink cowboy hat was an even bigger chick magnet! Bridget Smith, who ended up being the 3rd-place female survivor finisher, ran up to Al and me and asked if we would be in a photo with her.

Later I reviewed my split times and discovered my last mile was a full minute slower than my first mile. Instead of my using the energy of the woman in front of me during the race, in reality she had drained my energy. That was when I realized my running downfall was fast women!

Top 3 females:

Top 3 female survivors:

Top 3 males:

Top male survivors: