Pink sheets for the cure

I never will forget the first time I ran in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. It was 1999 and I lived in Washington, D.C., the city that held the largest race. I had never seen that many people together in one place, doing the same thing.

As I chugged up a hill near the end I came up next to a young man, probably in his early 40s. He wore a pink note pinned to his back. Pink notes are for people who run the race in memory of someone who has died of breast cancer. This runner's pink note said, "In memory of my wife." He held the hand of a little girl, who looked about six, with long brown braids, a baseball cap and a pink note on the back of her own T-shirt that said, "In memory of my mom."

There's something to be said about the power of a group of people working toward the same goal. That's how I felt that day, and how I feel every time I run the race. We are running so nobody has to wear pink notes anymore.

This October, guests can book a room at any Hard Rock Hotel nationwide and get into bed for the cure with Hard Rock Hotels’ Pink Sheets, part of Hard Rock International’s worldwide Pinktober campaign to benefit breast cancer awareness.

Guests visiting the Hard Rock in San Diego, Biloxi, Chicago, Orlando, Hollywood or Tampa during October can request a guestroom with the brand's special pink Sleep Like a Rock bedding. Twenty-five percent of the room rate will benefit the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Hard Rock has sponsored its own breast cancer research campaign for nine years.