Walking for the cure

There's something about seeing the names of so many cancer victims and survivors on pink papers pinned to the backs of so many walkers that makes a breast cancer awareness walk so compelling. So it was for the thousands at the Komen Walk for the Cure at Great Adventure Sunday morning. But it's a celebration, too, which is obvious from the hugs and cheers and laughter, with nary an agitated voice, all along the 4K route around the parking lot perimeter and through Hurricane Harbor and back.

The organizers must have great faith in the race savvy of the participants, for event staffers were hard to find and security was all but invisible. The emcee was telling people about joining him at the stage area, but unless you could follow your downloaded event map, you had not a clue where he was. My wife and I never did locate where the survivors' photo was to be taken. But it seems the free parking until 9 a.m. was a ruse to get people there well ahead of time (no doubt to get freebies at the sponsor booths). We knew it would be hard to separate the morning Komen attendees from the afternoon park-goers, so several in our group weren't penalized for arriving past 9 a.m.

Parking was surprisingly smoooth, though it did take at least a half-hour to finally clear traffic exiting the park and heading up Route 537. However, finding your car tested your powers of observation. One vehicle was parked between signposts Tweety Bird 4 and 5. Another was near Marvin the Martian 6. As one son warned, "Of course, you have to know what Marvin the Martian looks like.'' Somebody in our party did. So, as with all things at the Komen walk, it was all good.