When lifelong runner Michele Cassone was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer in January 2019, she was just over a year into a run streak. She’d just finished her second half Ironman and was signed up for a 50-mile race a few months away. Her oncology team expected that she would stop running, considering the intensity of the treatment ahead. They were wrong.
Before treatment—which included a lumpectomy, 30 rounds of radiation, and six months of chemotherapy pills—the 56-year-old North Carolina resident averaged about 10 to 15 miles per week. Now, she aims for a mile a day, but goes longer when she’s feeling better.
“Sometimes, I just start crying, because it takes everything I have to go at a very slow pace,” says Cassone. She gets blisters on the soles of her feet, and swelling in her arms and legs. Muscle atrophy is taking its toll, making it challenging to start moving after sitting for even short periods. “Some days my body hurts so much, but I keep going, and I finish that run.”
Cassone says the determination, drive, and motivation it takes to stay on her streak are the same qualities she draws on to navigate treatment.
Most of all, it keeps her focused on the future—she’s very excited about hitting “comma day” soon, when she will have logged 1,000 streak days. She jokes that her doctors roll their eyes when she talks about running without end, but that they believe it has helped her prognosis, as well as her treatment recovery.
“I’m just a determined and stubborn person,” she says. “Running is absolutely part of my fight and my healing. Cancer is something that happened to me, but being a runner is who I am.”
Find out how a streak can change you—join us for the summer Runner’s World Run Streak!
From Memorial Day through the Fourth of July, you’ll run at least one mile, every day. Can you do more than one mile? Of course! But one is all you need to make it count. Where will you run? How will you make it happen? How will your life change? We want to hear about it! Connect with the worldwide run streak community by tagging #RWRunStreak on social media.
