Cancer Survivors Train in Rockville for 5K Races

After dealing with cancer, the participants in the Cancer to 5K Training Program, a free 12-week program that introduces or reintroduces cancer survivors to long distance running, have pretty simple goals in mind.

"Running a 5K, finishing it, and hopefully getting a good time," said current participant and member of the Montgomery County team Jason Greenspan. "And not walking."

The coaches of the Montgomery team, Marla Shapiro and Don Shulman, have similar goals for the six members of the team which trains twice a week at locations such as the Montgomery College track in Rockville and Lake Needwood.

"To see them cross the finish line, plain and simple," Shapiro said. "I think that for a survivor, or someone that's in treatment, it's not just focusing on the fact that you're going to live, but you're going to live well and we've got to get you ready for it."

Sixty cancer survivors have completed the Cancer to 5K training program and gone on to run in local 5K distance races since 2007. Volunteers accompanied participants throughout the training process and many of the runners were still being treated for cancer while training.

"We had probably 15 people crossing the finish line [who] 12 weeks before were strangers who had a lot of apprehension about running," said program manager Laura Scruggs about her first experience with Cancer to 5K last spring. "I would say three-quarters of them had never put on running shoes before."

"My favorite experience would be the fact that every step I took, every drop of sweat, every smile, every tear, we were doing it and experiencing it together," said former participant Tony Tacka. "It wasn't just people saying 'we support you' or encouraging me. Survivors, volunteers, coaches, Ulman fund staff, we were doing it together."

Current participant Meliha Perez Halpern called the program "a great way to get motivated.” She added that the experience this training season "has been fantastic" and that the group "has been very supportive."

The Montgomery team meets twice a week over the training period to work out as a group.

"The group is great, we've got six fabulous people, and all different ages from early twenties up into fifties," said Shulman, who's in his first year with the organization. "They have very little running experience for the most part, but if they have been able to overcome cancer and the therapy and treatments afterward, I really want them to use their energy to accomplish something positive and make them feel good about what they can do."

The Cancer to 5K Training Program has four team locations in Montgomery County, DC, Howard County and Baltimore. There is also an online program that allows participants who don't live in the four major training locations to still train.

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