11th Annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure draws over 66,000!

I've got some other images I might work on and post, but this is a view of the participants of the 11th annual Komen Race for the Cure against breast cancer here in STL. Looking west down Market Street, approaching 18th street.
I've been a supporter since the early days, but this is the first time I actually went down and did the walk with the masses; as a rule, I dislike being in crowds, but my friend Steve walked last year and really wanted someone to walk with him this year, so I thought, "what the heck." I was curious about a few things, not the least of which was how I would feel packed in with all those people, so Steve and I hooked up early and went downtown for the walk. Man! What a crowd! Now, I've been in some pretty big crowds in my day--I was actually working backstage artist services at the VP Fair Fourth of July when we had 1 MILLION people estimated in attendance! But that figure covered the entire downtown area and Laclede's Landing, a much larger area than the several blocks cordoned off of the race today--so the sheer mass of moving humanity seemed denser today, but I did okay. As we walked, when the pack got a little pressed, I just kicked it down a gear and moved into a clearer space.
Three miles is not much of a hike to me-I usually go 6-8 miles when I get out and really do some hiking. So the physical effort was pretty much inconsequential; two things surprised me in it all, however; the first, that 66,000 people could look like so many, and second, that after 48 years of life in St. Louis, and three hours spent in the mass, I didn't see a single soul I knew. Steve and I talked about that a bit on our walk-looking to see if anyone we knew would turn up-and it still surprises me that neither of us saw anyone. I realize there's just under one million people in the metro area, but still, I really would've thought I'd see SOMEONE I knew.
Anyway, they managed to raise around 3.2 million dollars for the cause, just a tad under what they did last year, and that's a really cool thing. I'm not a cancer-survivor, in fact, there's low-incidence of cancer in my family, as far as we know (medical records being rather unreliable more than 60 years back or so), so when participants asked who I was walking for, I just said "for everyone who can't be here to walk today."

And while I found out that I still dislike being in crowds, I really do like seeing all those people united in common cause, and as my eyes walked on the masses all around me, I was really glad I went. I intend to walk this walk again, next year, and hope to do so for as long as I'm around.