Update and the Walk Ahead 5K

Just wanted to drop in and let you all know that Missy is still doing really well! Her chemo dose changed a little, up from 140mg to 150mg, and that seems to be making her just a little more tired. Or maybe she is starting to feel the effects of the radiation, we aren't sure which, but she is definitely not feeling like herself. Still, she is doing great! She had a wonderful holiday weekend with family and has been getting most of her Christmas shopping done online and just relaxing as much as possible. This will be her first week with all five radiation treatments, but so far so good.

Her work is holding their holiday fundraiser today, and all proceeds go to help pay for her treatments. It is so wonderful! She is taking pictures and we will post them soon.

My aunt suggested we post the pictures from the "Walk ahead 5K" that we participated in back in October, and I thought it was a great idea! The team "Melissa's Magnificent 43" raised over $11,000 and I believe the entire walk was over $175,000! Amazing. Here is the post that was originally on my blog after the walk/run.

**Originally Posted on Bio-Girl in October 2010**

We did it! The 5K was yesterday and I am very proud to report that we all made it to the finish line. The team of Melissa's Magnificent 10 became Melissa's Magnificent 43 and was the top fund raising team in the race, bringing in over 9 Thousand dollars! Thank you all so much for your donations to this amazing cause. They will keep the donation pages active until November 1st, so I will leave the button on my sidebar up until then. After that time, if you would like to make a donation to the University of Cincinnati's Brain Tumor Research department you can contact me and I will pass on their information.

The race was a huge success all around. The organizers were expecting 200 participants in the race and were hoping to raise $60,000. They ended up with 1600 participants and raised $138,000. The race course was amazingly beautiful, Starting in Newport, Kentucky, taking us over the Purple People bridge and ending on the river in Cincinnati. Nick and I decided at the last minute to actually run part of the race, and that was fun! We maybe ran 20%... but considering we did no training we thought that was pretty good. We ran the entire portion in KY :). Here are a few pictures from our day. Thanks again for all of your support. I can't tell you how much it meant to our entire family.

Some of Melissa's Magnificent 43! (look how tall Nick looks!)

Family. Yes, I do have on a tank top. I had a jacket over it, but you all, it was so freaking hot. Like 90 degrees hot. But very beautiful!

Sisters

Cici was very excited about her first 5K

Missy and Ashley, who is her great friend who told us about the race and got us all involved!

Me and Nick

Mom and Missy. Adorable

Mom and her girls (yes, we took a lot of pictures before the race. What? We like pictures! Who needs to mess with stretching before a race??)

Crossing into Cincinnati on the Purple People Bridge. Obviously we were very serious about our finish time, seeing as how we stopped for a quick photograph.

Missy with some of her girlfriends who came in from Columbus, Louisville and Chicago to be apart of the race!

Finish! (which oddly enough, was not the same place as the start. So after the race we had to walk another mile to our car. Not the best plan, but the entire walk was so beautiful that we didn't mind!)