The following article from Runner's World just brightened my day. I may not be ready for a marathon (yet), but its good to know that its possible. One step, then another step, then another step... until you reach the goal.
RW Challenger of the Week: Rob Wilkinson
Just a year and a half ago, radiation and chemotherapy treatments for tonsil cancer had left Rob Wilkinson so weak he could barely walk the stairs to his apartment. He even had to drive the 200 yards between his home and his office. “Any exertion would have required me to take an extensive nap,” he says.
Though he was never a runner before—for most of his life, he’d only run when he had to—after being declared cancer free in November 2009, Rob started running to rebuild his body from the ravages of chemotherapy and radiation. And somewhere along the way, he fell in love with it. He decided to spend his first year of being cancer-free by running the 2010 Richmond Marathon.
“I’m celebrating my life!” says Wilkinson. “Every run I do now is a celebration of my health, something I definitely took for granted before I was diagnosed and don’t intend on losing sight of again.”
He trained hard for the race, despite the lingering side effects from radiation and chemotherapy that he still experiences—dry mouth, tinnittus (ringing in the ears), and numbness in his feet.
At the Richmond Marathon he wore a shirt with the names of 30 people who had lost their battles with cancer, including his mother and four friends. His younger brother beat non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in the ’90s.
“I knew my body was going to give me 26.2 miles of reasons not to finish the challenge, but those 30 names on my shirt helped me see this through to the finish," he says. "Cancer in all its forms is a horrible disease, and I hope I’m able to help raise awareness for all those that have to endure it and their loved ones."
Rob crossed the line in 5:06, despite battling a screaming hip and headwinds on the Lee Bridge.
"I didn’t think it was possible to hurt that much," he says, "yet feel so incredibly good.
Name: Rob Wilkinson
Age: 41
Hometown: Fredericksburg, Virginia
Family: Fiancé, Tracie; stepchildren Kyle 19, Ericka 17, Grace 7, Lucy 6, Abbie 6
Occupation: Safety Engineer supporting the United States Marine Corps
RW Challenge Goal: Finish the 2010 Richmond Marathon
What was the race like for you? The race itself was very much like the treatments I endured; I went in with a positive attitude and believed that I would make it through. Along the way it hurt and at times tried to bring me to my knees, but I kept pushing through all the pain. After I completed my last cancer treatment, the nurses walked me over to a victory bell and had me ring it; I felt the same emotions then as I did when I crossed the finish line at Richmond. For the previous eight months, I had thought about what it would feel like striding to the finish line. What I imagined didn’t even come close to the elation of seeing the finish line and then crossing over it. The flood of tears came as it finally sunk in that I had actually completed a marathon; the same person that had to be fed by a tube 18 months prior and couldn’t walk 100 yards without needing to stop and rest had just run 26.2 miles!
How has the experience of finishing a marathon changed you? It may sound like a cliché, but it has made me feel that I really can do anything that I set my mind to.
What is your next running goal? I recently wrote my running goals down for 2011 and most of them are time-based for different race distances. I do want to do another marathon, but I haven’t picked the race yet—perhaps in my old hometown of Philly with the Runner’s World Challenge again?
What is your favorite piece of gear? I love my Garmin 405CX! I was getting bored of running the same loop over and over again because I knew the distance. I love the freedom it provides to just head out and mentally flip a coin every time I come to an intersection. The only downside to it is that I have ended up on some roads that I had no business running on!
What is your idea of a rave run? I can’t count the amount of times I visited Disney World as a kid and an adult. I have to do Disney as a runner! I can’t think of anything better than running through the Magic Kingdom and Epcot!
What is the biggest challenge to getting out the door, and how do you get over it? My life has changed so much in the past year, both personally and professionally, that my free time is limited. I just have to occasionally force myself to come home, throw on the shoes and just go. Additionally, I’m lucky that my fiancé is a new runner and she has been helping to kick my butt in gear when my motivation has been waning.
What advice would you give to a first-timer? Figure out how to stay motivated and continually use it to keep running. My initial motivation was to build myself up from what the cancer treatments did to my body. Now I find my motivation in training for a specific race or distance, as well as trying to influence others to give running a try. I’m proud of the fact that I have personally motivated a friend to start running. Nonrunners just don’t understand how supportive we are to each other, the bulk of us are never going to be an elite and are really just competing against ourselves. I think they would be surprised to see how often we reach out to total strangers to give encouragement during a difficult section of a race or to congratulate a good effort.
