The following is an excerpt from Nicole’s blog ( www.sophiesrun.ca ). See Friday’s Champion for regular updates on her memorable journey.

We ran from Sullivan County to Delaware (Wednesday). We were all in awe of the scenery in the mountains. Looking down at the trees changing colours made us forget about all the hills we ran through yesterday. As we get further up the mountains we now see deer wandering in the woods. It is breathtaking and peaceful.

Our run today was flat at the start. As we continued to recover from yesterday’s hills, we all thought we were in the clear of any three-mile lifts today. We were wrong. At about the 15-km mark we were faced with two large hills. At this point I couldn't feel my feet. Just when we wanted to give up, we all pushed ourselves to the finish line.

Natalie and her family have a good friend Sylvia Pitt. Sylvia has been following the run and encouraging us every step of the way. Colorectal cancer is close to Sylvia's heart. She lost her husband, Cass, to the disease a few years back. Today, Natalie dedicated her run to him. Cass was watching over us ladies as we pushed our way up the last two hills.

After our run today we came back to Villa Roma. We decided that we would relax by joining in on a game of bingo with about 60 seniors. We thought that we could earn some more money for the Colorectal Cancer Association of Canada. Bingo is definitely not our game and we’ll just stick to running.

The bingo brought back many memories of my Baba (grandma) who lost her battle to colon cancer. She too ignored all of her symptoms until it was too late. My Baba was instrumental in my life while growing up.

I have many fond memories of the times I spent with my Baba. I get a chuckle today as I think of how she would always worry about me playing sports and being a bit of a "tomboy." I will never forget how she would sit me down and teach me how to knit and do the things that "little ladies" enjoyed doing. With this being said, she was always one of my biggest fans at soccer games and basketball games.

When my Baba was diagnosed with cancer, her reaction was so different from my mom’s. My Baba accepted her illness, but just didn't have the strength to fight her disease. I would go over to visit her and many times she didn't have the strength to even open her eyes.

I still live with the pain of seeing my Baba have to suffer as she did. Although I miss her very much, I thank God for reuniting her back with my Gigi (grandfather). After she lost my Gigi, she was never the same. Deep down I know that she longed for the day that they could be together again.

Love, the Sophie's Run Team.