Saturday, high 50's, gray, wet, but mercifully no rain. The annual Albany Race for the Cure, to benefit primarily the Northeastern New York chapter of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, 5k.

Everybody's seen bib numbers pinned to the front of runners; what strikes you at the Race for the Cure is all the hot pink sheets of paper pinned to people's backs. At the top they say either "In celebration of" or "In memory of." Then the runner or walker writes a name. Here's a few I remember:

"Aunt Jackie and Aunt Gina"
"Aunt Florence"
"My Mom"

A group of spectators, one of whom I recognized as Scotty McKay, wore black T-shirts with "Team You You" in bright pink block letters on the front and "Helen Civitello" on the back with a pink ribbon printed in the middle. Scotty said that's in honor of his grandmother, a Mont Pleasant native who is in her 90's and lives in Rotterdam after surviving three different kinds of cancer. God bless her.

According to the Race for the Cure Web site:

"Since 1995, the Komen Northeastern New York Affiliate has granted over $1.32 million (up to 75 percent of net revenues) to community-based breast cancer screening, education and treatment programs for the medically underserved in our 11-county service area. Our Affiliate service area includes: Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Washington, Warren, Montgomery, Hamilton, Essex, Clinton and Franklin counties. A minimum of 25 percent of net revenues support the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Award and Research Grant Program."

The race on Saturday drew 1,360 female finishers, of which 69 were listed in pink on the Web results as cancer survivors, and 551 males, of which five were listed as survivors, including 18-year-old Jon Joval of Ballston Spa, who was 73rd overall in 22:02.

Andy Allstadt, the 2007 Gazette Stockade-athon winner, won the race in 15:29, and Kari Gathen of Colonie was the women's winner, in 18:48. It seemed like everybody won, in some way. I certainly felt like I did, being surrounded by all this good will.

Yours truly ripped it up pretty good on the course, too, if I can be so bold. In that weather, it took me about two seconds to get warmed up and loose. I felt like dynamite every step of the way and made sure I was about 10 deep at the start so as to avoid the traffic disaster of the Corporate Challenge. First mile split was 7:06, and finished in 21:19, nice even mile splits and a pace of 6:52, helped, of course, by the Madison Avenue downhill to the finish, 57th male overall, and sixth of 54 in the 45-49 age group (mysteriously, my residence in the official results says Delanson; I know I wrote Schenectady). I felt so good, it was like an amusement park ride, where you say "Can we get back on?" right after finishing. That was so fun.

Apologies to the Race for the Radiation Oncology Center in Saratoga on Sunday. I desperately wanted to run this race, since the course is laid out on the racetrack grounds, but I didn't realize that the Knicks-Nets game I was scheduled to cover started in early afternoon, not at night. Duty calls. I'd still like to get to Saratoga for the USATF Cross Country Championships on Oct. 18, and I think my work schedule will allow it. By the way, Shawn Donegan (23, Wilton, 15:48) and Kelly Holzworth (30, Saratoga Springs, 20:45) won the ROC race.

Weird weekend in Albany, with the filming of stunts for the "The Other Guys", a Will Ferrell-Mark Wahlberg-Eva Mendes cop movie to be released next year, going on between Pearl and Broadway. Because of the race and coverage responsibilities, I was in Albany twice on Saturday and once on Sunday, and these people were doing their stuff the whole time. They had a New York City street sign at the corner of Pearl and Maiden Lane that marked it as the corner of Broadway and E. Houston Street. Last I saw, Houston Street isn't a tiny cobblestone one-lane hill. Movie Magic!

I was watching some of the activity after the race Saturday morning, and some movie workers came along with clipboards and headsets and started pointing at non-descript bystanders among the 15 or so of us gawking on Pearl Street. "Nope, nope, nope ..." the woman said, pointing at various people. I was a Nope and was politely asked to move down the block.

Not long after, a black motorcycle with a black-clad driver and all kinds of Handicams and apparatus bolted to all sides came driving up, then a small red car with 23 bullet holes (I counted) in the left side and a bashed-in front quarter panel. There's 23 reasons right there why I won't go to this movie. Not a fan of Will Ferrell's movie work, either, although I loved him on SNL. I was covering the Boston Marathon a few years ago and saw him finish, and I give a ton of credit to a large guy like him running that race, believe me. Just don't tell me I don't have a sense of humor, just because I don't like Will Ferrell movies. Hey, I read "Ethan Frome" when I was in high school.

After taking Sunday off, I'm ready to get cranking again today. My training "program", if you can call it that, isn't very systematic, but I think I'm doing something right, judging from how I felt and my time in the Race for the Cure. And thank God, everything is holding together beautifully, from a physical standpoint, right now. My left heel and Achilles haven't really uttered a peep since I started up again after Saratoga.

I'd love to run the Race for the Cure again next year, if for no other reason than I already have somebody in mind whose name I'd like to carry on my back, under "In memory of."