5k to 50k in 12 Months
“Being told you have cancer is hard,” says Shane Miles, who was diagnosed with tonsil cancer at the age of 38. “The surgeries were hard. Radiation treatment was hard. There really was nothing about having cancer that was not hard.”
Going through cancer led Miles to start running. “Most people think running is hard, and it is,” says Miles. “But when you have been through something like cancer, and you survive, your thinking changes.”
In April of 2011, shortly after recovering from the cancer, Miles signed up for a Mud Run. He used a couch-to-5k program to train. He quickly moved into the graduating program bridge-to-10k, and within a couple of months was running an hour without stopping. In June, Miles ran an unofficial half-marathon, 13.1 miles in 2:03. “There was no glamour, no finish line and no applause,” says Miles. “I was elated, just the same!”
A short time later, a friend challenged Miles to complete another unofficial run, a 26.2-mile course known as the Outer Banks Marathon held in November – only his challenge was to run it in July. Miles’ sweltering run lasted 5:12 through the summer’s hot sun and was followed by his first experience in an ice bath.
As the year pressed on, so did Miles’ efforts to increase his mileage. “It was nothing for me and my training partner to do a 20-miler,” he says. “We loved it and I was becoming more passionate about the sport.”
Miles’ first official marathon came in November (3:49). Then just four weeks later he put himself to the test of running an ultra, a 50k trail run in Virginia Beach. Miles thought the experience was incredible. “Just a couple years earlier, cancer had shrunk me down to 110 pounds, depleted all or most of my muscle mass, and now here I was running 31 miles,” he says.
Like cancer, the run was not easy. “The last four miles seemed to take an eternity,” he remembers. “At my lowest moments during the run, I thought of my family at the finish line waiting for me. I thought of the strength it took to survive those radiation treatments every day for six weeks. In the end, I pulled everything I had left inside and made my way to the finish line in 5:12.”
Miles’ life has changed immeasurably since his cancer diagnosis and recovery. He has learned that he has the strength to face almost anything. He is as physically fit as he’s ever been. He has formed some great friendships through the sport of running. He serves as vice president of the Outer Banks Running Club and is captain of a team for the inaugural Tuna Run 200 – a 200-mile relay race from Raleigh to Atlantic Beach. He’s also gotten involved with the American Cancer Society and is serving as volunteer race director for the Relay For Life Cupcake 5k in Dare County.
In addition to Relay for Life, the American Cancer Society has just brought its DetermiNation program to Charlotte. DetermiNation is a unique opportunity for all people – young, old, walkers, or runners – to change the course of cancer forever. Participants in DetermiNation will not only be part of the fight to save lives from cancer, but also be part of a community that encourages, coaches, and cheers you on every step of the way. Through the DetermiNation program runners and walkers dedicate their training and race to save lives from all forms cancers. The dollars team members raise help the American Cancer Society do the most for people with cancer today to end the disease tomorrow. And the regular exercise participants get to maintain a healthy weight during training will help them reduce their own cancer risk.
