Over 14,000 people participated in the 2006 Komen Puget Sound Race on June 17 and Ballard resident Linda Stroud, a breast cancer survivor, was singled out as the Honorary Team New Balance Member

"I was very surprised and pleased," Stroud said. This year's race chairperson Susan Gilman nominated Stroud for the honor.

The race raised over $1.5 million for the Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

Stroud, 61, received the honor for her perseverance and dedication to raising awareness about breast cancer.

In 1999, during a routine examination, Stroud's doctor suspected something was wrong and ordered a mammogram.

After she was diagnosed with breast cancer, Stroud had a lumpectomy. The operation removes lumps from the breast, typically when cancer is present but has not spread. She began radiation treatment six weeks later at the Seattle Breast Cancer Center at Northwest Hospital.

"I did not have to have chemotherapy, I felt fortunate," said Stroud.

After a year without medicine, Stroud took Tamoxifen for three years, followed by Arimidek for two years.

She has been off the drugs since January.

Stroud says she owes her life to her gynecologist Susan Petcoff and Poly Clinic Surgeon Dr. Sigrid Gyton.

Gyton asked Stroud if she was superstitious when the surgery date opened up. "Good things can happen on Friday the 13th," said Stroud.

"It's not the end of the world. I had faith in my doctors and the treatment they recommended," said Stroud.

"I feel fortunate to be healthy, seven years after surgery. So far nothing has come back," Stroud said.

Four weeks after her breast surgery, Stroud signed up for her first Komen

Race for the Cure event.

Cancer survivors wore pink. "I looked around and saw all these women in pink hats. I had a tear in my eye," she said.

Stroud lives in Ballard with her husband Craig Keister. She helps Keister run Mandrake's Antiques under the Ballard Bridge.

She was a history and German teacher at the high school level and retired in 1998 to devote time to the antique business.

"I'm interested in the history and background of furniture. It's wonderful," Stroud said.

Three to four times a week, Stroud goes running from her home overlooking Shilshole Bay to Golden Gardens.

"I like to run through our neighborhood down to the water," said Stroud, an avid runner since 1979.