Lung Power Team Member: Mike Malone

Why the Marathon? Why RHA? Why Now?

The Chicago Marathon has become my second favorite day of the year next to Christmas. The sheer spectacle of 40,000 runners who commit, train and push their bodies to the limit while throngs of well wishers watch in amazement along the streets of Chicago is wonderous.

I have completed two marathons in the last decade and have taken the last few years off from running. Now, I'm back. This year's marathon is going to be very special for me. My first marathon was seven years go. Never an athlete, I then committed to running 26.2 miles the year my mother was dying of lung cancer. She was a life-long smoker. In addition to the weekday runs, every Saturday morning I would get up and do my long runs along the lakefront. Afterwards, I would go to my parent's house to visit, clean, do errands and just be with them. We all looked forward to those Saturdays. We all knew but never said just how little time we had left together. My mom lost her 18-month battle to lung cancer Labor Day weekend, 2004. She was 69. We buried her that following Friday. The next day I ran the longest distance I had ever run in my life – 23 miles. Incredibly difficult. The following month I ran my first full marathon with my family and friends lining the streets, cheering me on, with my mother, noticeably absent. When I completed the race my sister was among many who greeted me with hugs & congratulations. She gave me a card that read "and just think, mom saw you run every mile."

A special memory I have among my two marathons is that my oldest daughter, Megan, a natural athlete ran me in the last five miles of both races. She was just a teenager at the time – but all the support I needed after mile 19. Two years ago, she completed her first marathon - on an Island in Lake Superior, a vastly different and much more remote experience than Chicago. Megan graduated college this past May and I recently celebrated my 50th birthday. We thought what a better way to mark these two milestones-than to do the marathon together. So, we are training and looking forward to October and pushing our bodies to the limit this summer. To maximize our commitment, we've taken on the challenge of running with RHA's team. We are raising funds for RHA, and creating awareness for lung related diseases.

Megan is now discovering the beauty of Chicago's lakefront as we traverse the paths a few times a week. What Megan doesn't know is how much she is like her grandmother: determined, smart, and confident. I see so much of my mom in Megan every day. So, this year, Megan and I are running for our lives…in my mother's honor. Selfishly I'm enjoying all the time we're spending together and when it all comes together this October it will be amazing. Through our efforts, if we can inspire just one person against tobacco usage (and come in under 5 hours!) it will be worth every mile and every minute of training.