Race for the Free Samples

Today was the Race for the Cure in Washington. It's a fabulous experience actually to see all these folks united against cancer (although, really, who is going to be passionate for cancer. What does that platform sound like?) What's also amazing is the amount of crap that goes with such an event - there were dozens of stations set up giving out free crap - water bottles, breakfast bars, yogurt, stickers, cereal, scarves. We got a late start so we missed meeting up with my coworkers so rather than racing at all, we showed up at the finish line and milled around (it's a 5k so the racers were at the finish line in like 10 minutes). Andy seemed to get a kick out of seeing the masses and it was indeed touching to see the personal messages people had on their shirts for relatives and friends who had survived or passed due to the disease. I'm not into such public displays on emotion, but it was moving to see.