Mandy Moore, the actress and singer, and Miss USA 2009 Kristen Dalton were in Washington, D.C., on Sunday for the inaugural Gynecologic Cancer Foundation (GCF)'s "Race to End Women's Cancer." Race participants could choose to run the half marathon, 5K or walk one mile through the city.

Moore twittered at 6:30 a.m.: " Up early w/ @GSKUS to lend support to GCF's 'race to end women's cancer.' just doin' my part to help women fight cervical cancer." Moore chose to walk the one-mile course.

Dalton twittered at 8:30 a.m.: "2500 participants at the GCF race today in DC!! Woohoo!!" Race witnesses are not sure which course Dalton ran or walked.

Miss USA's tweet later in the day leads one to assume she was either exhausted from the morning exercise or not one for strenuous physical exertion. "My driver just made me walk 20 minutes to the car with all my luggage - does that make sense??" she tweeted from New York at 5:30 p.m..

In Freedom Plaza before the race, Moore and Miss USA were introduced to the estimated 2,500 participants by emcee Tommy McFly of MIX107.3. McFly was also up early, sending this tweet at 5:30 a.m.: "Event @FreedomPlaza. Early. Need Caffeine. Good Cause."

The 17-year-old son of Politics Daily's own Joann Weiner competed in the race. Weiner, who was out of town for her daughter's soccer tournament, left a note in her son's running shoe that said, "I bet you can finish in less than two hours." The proud mother reports that he did just that, finishing the 13.1 mile course in 1:56:17, which was good enough for 181st place!

The GCF created the inaugural running event because of the increasing numbers of women being diagnosed each year. The organization states that about 80,000 women are diagnosed annually with a gynecological cancer. The purpose of the race was to raise public awareness and money to support GCF programs for research for and educate women about prevention, early detection and proper post-diagnosis treatments.


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