Lapping the Hawke's Bay Regional Sport Park athletics track on Saturday it became very apparent that everyone present had been touched by cancer in some way or another.
There was a sense of camaraderie and comfort felt among this year's Relay for Life crowd that made me feel like I was part of something bigger.
The event's colours, energy and passion were a true testament that good can come from grief, or at least be manufactured from it.
On Saturday morning cancer survivors were honoured in the first lap of the event, and at the night's closing ceremony hundreds of candles were lit to remember those who had lost their battles to cancer.
I grew up in Hastings and spent most of my summer afternoons training as a middle-distance runner under the watchful eye of Allan Potts.