More than 75 runners get ready to race Saturday Morning for the first annual Strides for a Cure 5K Run/Walk. (Photo by Jason Schoonover)

More than 70 people took steps toward a cure Saturday.

Austin High School’s Youth Leadership Club held the first Strides for a Cure 5K at the Jay. Hormel Nature Center Saturday morning. Money raised at the run will go to breast cancer research at the Hormel Institute.

Student organizer Jaclyn Bird said she was pleased with the reception for what she and the club hope will become an annual event.

“It’s awesome for our first year,” she said.

The soggy spring continued, but it didn’t deter any runners. The rain held off until after the run started around 9 a.m., but junior Nathan Schwab said the trails were already soggy.

“It’s a little wet in the back course, but we’ll all live,” Schwab said while describing the route to the runners.

Even with the rain, adviser and teacher Emily Hovland was hoping the lightening would hold off.

“We don’t think there’s going to be lightning, but it you see it, run fast,” she told the runners.