Relay for Life Reflection

So today, as you would have read yesterday, was Relay for Life. I'm not going to go into what Relay for Life is again so just click here to go to yesterday's post to read about it. So it started off at that temperature which is hot and cold at the same time. So I came wearing shorts, a CFA top and my CFA jacket to keep warm. Then, upon registering, you receive a Relay for Life T-shirt. Each year the T-shirt is a different colour and this year it was Purple which was cool since Purple is my favourite colour.

So the first lap of Relay for Life is for people with Cancer or who have previously had Cancer, they are called 'Survivors' and wear a purple sash throughout Relay for Life that has 'Survivor' written on it (not as in the TV-Show). They call this lap the "Survivors Lap". The second lap is when the people who look after, or who have looked after, a person with Cancer joins in. They are called the 'Carers' and this lap is called the "Carers Lap". The third lap is where everyone can join in and is called the "Family Lap" and so from here on in the Relay has started for everybody.

There is a team that is always there (I think they're called "Happy Feet") who sell these plastic necklaces (this year it was green) for $5 and then every lap they give you a bead (this year it was green for one lap, blue for every 5 laps, silver for 50 and gold for 100) for free which is cool and they would make a lot of money out of it because there are so many people participating in Relay for Life and almost everybody has one. This money is put towards the team fundraising total and is donated to the Cancer Council so it is not for profit. So here is a photo of me holding my necklace after my first three laps.

So I then continued for a few more laps until I got to this and had a break to get a drink. In this photo I was at 15 laps.

Then I just continued doing laps for a while and the time just slipped away until I got to around 30 (taking me 2 hours, 400 metres a lap and I was moving fast) where I started thinking about getting that little bit further and aiming for 50 laps. It took me a while and I finally reached 50 and my legs were killing me (walking non-stop for 4 hours can do that) but I pushed on and took this photo. I was very happy because I had reached my goal (the year before I had done 119 laps but I was there for the full 24 hours that time and I only reached 100 laps at 3am [yes, AM]). Here is a photo of my 50 beads, you can see the silver bead at the top.

So then I really had to have a rest because my legs were killing me and so I sat down for the first time for the whole Relay for Life and before we knew it I had to go home because my Dad had to drop my grandmother off on the way home. My middle brother is staying over night but I did it last year and unless I am doing it with my school it is not worth it. I mean last year I came home, had a shower and then fell asleep until dinner time (from 2pm to 7pm) and then I went back to bed and fell asleep and didn't wake up until 8am the next morning (I had no school) so you can see why I didn't want to do that again unless I could stay up and have fun with friends from school. So, all in all, Relay for Life was really fun (I say was even though it doesn't finish until 12pm tomorrow) and now I am relaxing and making this post. I ended up finishing on 52 laps before leaving (working out to just over 20.8km)

May the odds be ever in your favour, goodbye!