Panagiota Alexandropoulos: Mother's Day / Susan G. Komen Race

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Mother's Day / Susan G. Komen Race

Today was Mother's Day in the US, which was a somewhat bittersweet event in the Alexanderpool household. I started the day by participating in the Susan G. Komen Philadelphia chapter's Race for the Cure event, a 5k run dedicated to raising funds for breast cancer research and women's health care initiatives with all proceeds going to Delaware Valley-area institutions. Pegs and I ran the same race when we first arrived in 2010, so to say that it brought back a number of memories would be a bit of an understatement. There were an estimated 45,000 participants this year, many of them wearing pink tags indicating that they were racing in celebration of or in memory of someone. I saw a number of women who were clearly either undergoing treatment or just recovering from it, most of them surrounded by their friends and loved ones running with them. I was happy to support the event and celebrate the fight that so many of these women were clearly winning, but I would be lying if I said that I wasn't also somewhat angry (or at least embittered) that Panagiota wasn't one of them. I found myself at the very front of the crowd of runners, and when the starting gun was fired, I took off much faster than my usual jogging pace. I was running almost recklessly, as if I wanted to get away from a guilty sense of resentment towards the happy survivors, when I saw Sofia on the side of the road with Yia Yia, Papou, Nik, Young, Alex and Eva. In a split second I remembered why I was really running, and a quick high-five from Sofia drove me to continue at the same pace through the rest of the course: not out of a sense of anger and frustration, but out of a sense of hope, love and concern for those who loved and were loved by Pegs. When I met up with everyone after the race, I asked Sofia if she knew why I had run in the race; she thought about it for a second before replying, "You ran to win, Daddy." I did indeed, and I think I could say the same for everyone who participated today. Happy Mother's Day, Pegs; we miss you.