Bus Girl

The fictional Carrie Bradshaw saw her image on a bus placard because she wrote a popular sex column.

But Carol Taubman sees her image go by each day on the side of MTA buses for a very different reason.

Three years ago, Taubman, an industrial real estate broker, participated in her first Avon 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk, a 60-mile event that begins in Santa Barbara and ends at Zuma Beach in Malibu. She signed up not only for the physical challenge, but also because her mother, Rebecca Bekhor, is a breast cancer survivor.

After three months of training and raising $7,000 in sponsorships, she walked the three days with a friend, and found the experience exhilarating and deeply moving.

The following year she assembled a team of 25 women — the “Bosom Buddies” — and raised in excess of $110,000.

“After the 2002 Walk I thought I had hung up my running shoes and then the bug hit me again,” she said.

Last year she opted for new scenery, and so, together with a friend, Taubman walked her 60 miles in San Francisco. This year Taubman was sure she’d had enough — until last week.

That’s when Taubman’s daughters, Laura and Dani, spotted their mom on the side of a bus advertising the 2004 Walk. Organizers had serendipitously selected a candid photo taken at last year’s walk that showed the fit, enthusiastic Taubman in joyous midstride, making her the walk’s unofficial poster girl-around-town.

“Laura told me that I need to walk again since I’m on all the buses,” Taubman said. “Oy! I think she’s right.”

To join thousands — and probably Taubman — at the Oct.
8-10 walk, go to www.the3day.org .