Teams drive success of Komen race

More than 22,000 people took part in the 2009 race, raising more than $650,000 in donations.

Organizers expect a similarly good turnout this year, with 762 teams already registered for the race, scheduled for June 12 at Meredith College.

Seaboard Fitness Center in Raleigh is fielding a team for the Komen Race for the Cure for the first time this year. Twenty-one employees and club members have already signed up to participate.

"I have three clients  – two of them are survivors (and) one died from breast cancer a while back – and I have two friends who are going through it right now," said Gigi Lasher, the team leader and a personal trainer at Seaboard Fitness.

Likewise, other team members said they are running the race to support people in their lives who have battled cancer.

"For me, it's very personal because breast cancer took my mother's life when she was 56," Tom Bodenstine said. "After raising six children and getting into grandparenthood, she died from breast cancer, and so, when I run in the race, I think of her just about the whole time."

Other team members said they are participating to improve their own health, and some said they want to better their times from previous 5-kilometer races.

While they're in it for different reasons, runners say they share the same mission: to end breast cancer.