BunnyHopping to Fight Cancer.

The Amazing Kristina Pineda.

aka Peen!Diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer in 2008.
Today...remission!!

Heck ya!

Weekend preparations included making sure guest quarters were as adequate as possible, setting out some baked goods, bathing the dog, and making sure there would be plenty of football on tivo for jamie. The estrogen levels were about to get off-the-hook in our household! Oh, and setting out some jogging pants for Sunday morning, double-checking availability of bunny ears, and stocking my "race bag" with water, hair ties, safety pins, chapstick, wallet, and my camera.

I went to bed feeling mighty prepared for the SusanGKomen Anti-Cancer Race!!!!

Then, dreams about our Oprah shirts woke me up at 6:30am and I jumped out of bed to whip up some last-minute shirts specifically for our friend. AHEM...I'd like to that this time to point out that it was SIX THIRTY IN THE MORNING!! This was after we didn't get to bed until 4am. For those of you who have yet to see me in the morning, this is a notable achievement as is noted by Jen + Devon below:

It was all worth it to see Peen's face when she walked up to the four of us, looking like this:

jen, michelle, ME, jocelyn

Tons of folks showed up in support of Peen over the weekend. Her friends from college, from work, from the SF medical community, and a big contingency specifically from our sorority! Many of us had been on a cable car party bus until all hours of the night (more on this later); plus some of us had house guests who insisted on partying all night long! Needless to say, nothing could stop the folks who wanted to walk proudly with our survivor. Not.a.thing. She has one more surgery on the books (huzzah!) and as this photo shows, we will always be there to stand by her side:

Team Bunny!

New Balance showed up to film Peen throughout the whole walk. She practiced her line, "I MOVE THE WORLD!" with us all night long and was super excited to be wearing her pink NBGear while cruising the 5K along SF water's edge. They followed us along the route and filmed us cheering, bunny-hopping, rounding the corner at PacBell Park, and they even stopped us right before the finish line to film us crossing over to the end. Are you kidding me, guys? Oprah AND New BalanceTV in less than 30days? I'm about three steps to becoming a self-proclaimed, natural reality-tv-star....teehee.

one of our practice shots.

The best part was witnessing Peen meet up with fellow survivors and other patients she had met and become friends with over this past year. They have fought and cried and gotten angry together, but race day allowed for smiles and happy tears and more smiles. The second best was the ability to catch up with some of our friends some of whom we hadn't seen in almost 10 years!

andrea.
anne.
my dog was sleeping in.
so, i tortured this one instead.i'm laughing on the outside and
"still-feels-so-early"-ing on the inside.
becca + baybridge.
baby bunnies.
new balance bunny.
me + jen.
captain bunny.

--This cancer is going to have NOTHING on our Kristina.--
I love you so much, friend.

for full set of pictures, click here.