At Race for the Cure, Conquests and Courage

Church groups came. Co-workers banded together and turned out. A record number of teams was registered -- just shy of 1,100. Other participants were in unofficial, self-styled teams -- Team Jane Grace, named for a woman who battled her malignancy for three years until succumbing last month at 82; Team Gisella; Sally's Saints. Each had a story of hope or sadness.

Dawn Jones and her daughters, Brittany, 15, and Kendall, 11, drove from Stafford County to remember neighbor Tia Armstrong, a mother of three who died in 1999, at 41. With her name on their backs, they traversed the route with Armstrong's family.

"She was a firecracker, she was a go-getter. She was an amazing mom," Jones said.

Marian Waters of Centreville listed seven names on pink squares on her T-shirt. Four plus her own on the square labeled "In Celebration." Two names, including a grandmother's, on the square labeled "In Memory."

"Way too many names," said Waters, who at 34 learned she had the disease. That was eight years ago, and she has made sure to run every Race for the Cure in Washington since.

She even ran back in 1997, a month after a mastectomy. "It was painful," Waters said. "But I said: If I can run it, I know I'll be okay."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.