Lee and Dave did it! They just finished up half marathon #6 when they participated in the Philadelphia Rock & Roll Half Marathon last weekend. Dave had never been to Philly so he had an opportunity to do some sight-seeing while he was there. For Lee, it was extremely emotional as there is quite a history with Philly and Nick and training.
Back when Nick was first in remission – April 2008 through April 2009 – he decided to join up with a few other cancer survivors to raise money for TeamFD (First Descents). To help train, he chose a college course “Triathlon Training”. He was back in college, living in Salt Lake and riding his bike everywhere. He learned to swim for endurance (baggy board shorts were out!) and began running. Little did we know that while he was training, the cancer was busy multiplying cells in his body.
While Nick had just started his training, Lee was in full effort to prepare for our first group marathon (just a bunch of friends getting together to help Nick – pre-WACKY) in the Country Music Marathon in Nashville the end of April. Lee and Nick had a chance to actually train together for a few weeks before he officially relapsed in April, 2009. Nick was unable to come with us to Nashville as he undergoing chemotherapy once again. He did, however, make the trip with us to Philly in May, 2010 (he was cancer-free again), where our good friend, Michael Rouse and his ESF staff, hosted the very first official “WACKY” event by running in the Broad Street Run. Nick joined the staff in their activities to kick off their new season as he shared his perspective about WACKY. Nick relapsed for the 2nd time two months after these pictures were taken:
The First Wacky Event
Nick tuckered out after all the fun
Lee recorded a video that included his thoughts and emotions while running this race – Half Marathon #6. Below are pictures of Lee & Dave last week:
The best tee shirt EVER!
I will update next week about October’s race in Dallas, Texas. Lee and Dave continue to impress me, as does Paul who is improvising a 13.1 mile race on his own since he was unable to join them in Philly.
Crazy.
