In cancer marathon, dollars count, steps don't
I’m preparing for a marathon, but you won’t see me gasping down the street in sweatpants, arms pumping and eyes fixed on an endless horizon.
There will be no calisthenics, no whistle-happy coaches, no energy drinks and no PowerBars. I carry neither stopwatch nor pedometer, and I won’t be seen in a gym or on a quarter-mile track.
My training regimen consists of parking further away from the supermarket, switching to light beer and trying to limit myself to just one pint of ice cream after dinner.
If these sacrifices don’t seem sufficient, I should explain that I’m not running a marathon. I am, however, walking one - all 26.2 miles - during the Craven County Relay for Life, an overnight team walk and American Cancer Society fundraiser set for April 25 at Grover C. Fields Middle School in New Bern.
It’s an idea I came up with last year. I wanted to help fight the disease that took my father’s life 13 years ago this month, and I sought to find a unique and memorable way to participate in the Relay for Life.
I’ve never been a sedentary person, but I’m no athlete. I never learned to breathe properly while running and doubt I could pass the one-mile mark without slowing to a raspy, wheezing jog.
But I can walk. Anyone can, it’s a simple equation: Put one foot in front of the other. Repeat 52,399 times.
There is, however, something to be said for endurance over speed. Walking the 52,400 steps in 26.2 miles took me nearly eight hours last year, and as the relay didn’t begin until after 7 p.m., sleepiness intensified the fatigue.
Even for a young Floridian-born foot-flapper who learned his hurried gait at Busch Gardens and honed it at Disney World, several hours of continuous walking can be tough. After about 20 miles, I felt sharp pains in my calves and ankles. At Mile 25, even my toes ached.
I remember limping from the car to my apartment and crawling up the stairs to my bedroom after walking my first marathon at last year’s relay.
Placed in perspective, though, it’s a jolly jaunt. A cakewalk. A primrose parade.
Cancer patients and their families walk a grim and arduous marathon of their own, and any symbolic gesture of support we can concoct is, by comparison, frivolous.
But every dollar we raise for the American Cancer Society can inch us closer to finding a cure.
Last year, I was able to raise almost $500 for the ACS thanks to the generosity of Havelock News readers. I’d like to collect an even $1,000 in pledges this year, and to do that, I need your help.
I’m asking readers to pledge $13 - the 50-cent newsstand price of the paper you’re reading multiplied by 26 miles. Any amount you’re willing to contribute, however, will be received gratefully.
Checks should be made out to the Craven County Relay for Life and can be mailed or hand-delivered to the newspaper. Every cent will go directly to the relay for use in cancer research and treatment.
Walking 26 miles one Friday night won’t cure cancer. But it is a step - or 52,400 - in the right direction.
This is the most recent installment of my biweekly newspaper column.