SAN DIEGO - The 16th annual Komen San Diego Race for the Cure took place Sunday morning at Balboa Park to raise money for breast cancer research.

The event, on the west side of the park near Sixth Avenue and Palm Street, included an expo and a tribute to survivors of the often deadly disease.

Nearly 13,000 people walked in the Race for the Cure. Many participants wore pink T-shirts while carrying photos and wearing names of cancer survivors.

Among the crowd was Lili Myers, a cancer survivor. She was first diagnosed in 2005.

"I went through a lumpectomy, chemotherapy, bilateral mastectomy and radiation, and I came out on the other side," she said.

Her husband Michael stood by her every step of the way.

He told 10News, "This is the most difficult thing a woman can possibly go through. They need support, they need our support, and there aren't enough men involved in supporting their wives, girlfriends, their mothers, their sisters."

The race comes just months after the Komen Foundation announced they wanted to pull funding from Planned Parenthood. The foundation later retracted the decision.

But did it have an impact on this year's race? Organizers say there were 1,500 fewer participants compared to last year. It was sponsorship that was hit the most. Organizers said they saw about a $100,000 decrease compared to the last race.

They added that when it comes to individual fundraising, they only saw an 8 percent drop, which they believe could have been caused by the economy. They say that is far better than what they have seen in other cities, where they have had a 30 percent drop.

However, those numbers did not seem to matter to those walking the race. In the end, the focus stayed on supporting those affected by breast cancer.

Komen hopes to raise $707,000 with the event, which is the organization's biggest fundraiser of the year.