Thousands of walkers and runners have been helping Prisma Health Midlands Foundation kick breast cancer to the curb! The impact of Walk for Life & Famously Hot Pink 10K & 5K has been incredible with more than $12.6 million raised in support of Prisma Health Breast Center in Columbia, S.C. …
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Thousands of walkers and runners have been helping Prisma Health Midlands Foundation kick breast cancer to the curb! The impact of Walk for Life & Famously Hot Pink 10K & 5K has been incredible with more than $12.6 million raised in support of Prisma Health Breast Center in Columbia, S.C. Through the generosity of our community and beyond, the latest innovative technology for early detection has been funded, and programs and services have been enhanced for patients and families.
Rally your family, friends and co-workers to celebrate survivors and to lift up others who are in the fight against breast cancer right now. The Famously Hot Pink 10K & 5K and walk will all end inside Segra Park’s ballpark. We will have a celebration for all those that cross the finish line with photo opportunities on our photo wall lined with balloons!
There’s something for kids of all ages! Register your child for the 800-meter (1/2 mile) Aflac Fun Run Race.
All registrations include an event T-shirt. Registered breast cancer survivors will be given a survivor’s hat.
The Walk for Life’s proceeds will fund equipment on Prisma Health’s Richland campus to further increase access to diagnostic mammography patients. The proceeds will fund two ultrasound units, two ultrasound exam tables, and one 3D mammography unit. Having the best technology available at our sites throughout the Midlands is so important for both access and quality. Help us to make an impact in our community and reach this year’s goal of raising $500,000 to support Prisma Health Breast Centers! Event proceeds will also continue to fund post-mastectomy camisoles, post-surgery breast bears and support materials for patients and families served by Prisma Health Breast Centers in the Midlands.
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The Half Marathon is an Afterthought.
Let me preface this by saying Walk for Life is an incredible event and I'm so grateful we have something of this caliber in Columbia. It's absolutely a gathering space … MORE
Let me preface this by saying Walk for Life is an incredible event and I’m so grateful we have something of this caliber in Columbia. It’s absolutely a gathering space for people who’ve had their lives touched by breast cancer and is a true celebration. And it’s been awesome to see the event grow in the last few decades.
That being said, the half marathon is absolutely an afterthought and, honestly, takes away from the Walk/celebration. The half is not happening in 2025 due to hurricane damage on the riverfront (from October 2024…) and I’ll honestly be surprised if it comes back after this year.
Pros of the half:
-mini tour of Columbia – runs through the growing historic district, through some of downtown, to and on the riverfront, and some other well known neighborhoods
-nice medal
-great cause
-start and finish at the minor league baseball stadium means tons of bathrooms, parking, and an easy to find spot for anyone coming from out of town
-near two major interstates, so easy to get to. And hotels are maybe a mile away down a major road.
Cons of the half:
-hardly anybody does it, so it’s absolutely possible you’ll be running alone/crossing major roads without the buffer of being in a crowd. Of course the police are out and blocking traffic, but it makes me feel like such a jerk to hold up traffic because I wanted to run 13.1 miles
-super expensive even though nobody does it. Local running store offers discounts, but even then it’s like $5 off
-minimal crowd support because anybody who cares about the walk for life is *in the stadium/doing the walk for life DURING the half marathon*
–so yeah, half marathon runners aren’t even there for the walk for life and celebration, we start before the event and end when the walk for lifers are leaving–
-the course runs on the riverfront for miles and miles, which is cool but also lonely.
-course runs out of the riverfront and up through a really sketch neighborhood (up a gigantic hill). I heard a dog barking (losing his mind) when I was at the bottom of the hill and legit was scared it was loose or somebody had let it go to attack another runner and had no way to tell since I was half a mile away/at the bottom of the hill. That sounds dramatic, but it’s definitely a ‘got a dog to protect what’s mine’ kind of neighborhood. It’s only maybe a mile and then you get into the more gentrified/historic section again, but it was a *choice* for the half marathon course
– Columbia is obsessed with finishing half marathons on baseball fields, so the race went long/wrapped around the baseball stadium for the honor or running on the field and finishing at like 2nd base. Which is cool, but you’re running THROUGH the people leaving from the walk for life to get to this arbitrary finish line that was like 13.7 on my watch. It just felt so disrespectful to have to race and duck through people who just did a *cancer walk* so I could get on the baseball field for…the vibe, I guess. When we literally have a half in a suburb like two weeks later that also finishes on a baseball field. Madness.
They’re doing a 5K and 10K this year (the 10K is new) and I hope they keep those distances. We only have two road half marathons in Columbia, so I *hate* to lose one, but this one just doesn’t fit the importance of the event.