| Watch over 50 IAAF Events Live and On-Demand at WCSN.com |
Race enthusiast and Minnesota native Bryce Gaudian has spent a lot of time training for and running marathons, and racing since 1979, Gaudian had been dreaming of running the prestigious Boston Marathon, but in 2004, 2005 and 2006, he missed the qualifying standard.
Since fall 2004, Gaudian has been running as a St. Jude Hero, helping to raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital®. The St. Jude Heroes program began in 1999 when a group of avid runners paired their love of the sport with raising money for the renowned children's cancer treatment and research hospital. St. Jude is the only pediatric cancer research center where families never pay for treatment not covered by insurance, and no child is ever denied treatment because of a family's inability to pay.
In June 2006, after completing Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, Minn., Gaudian spent two hours in the medical tent, hooked to four IVs because of excruciatingly painful leg cramps. After this experience, Gaudian told his wife he would never run another marathon. But instead of hanging up his running shoes, he found inspiration in a little girl named Anna Grace.
Abandoned in southern China when she was only a day old was just the beginning of Anna Grace's story. Adopted and home with her parents for only a week, Grace's health quickly deteriorated. She began suffering from ear infections, one of her eyes turned inward and she was losing the ability sit up. After doctors ran a CT scan, they quickly identified an orange-sized tumor called medulloblastoma on her brain stem. Anna survived a complex, life-threatening surgery to remove the tumor and was referred to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, where the 13-month-old began 16 months of chemotherapy and a procedure called conformal radiation. St. Jude pioneered the use of this therapy in protocols for children with brain tumors.
Today, Anna Grace is a typical giggly 7-year-old little girl who loves Disney's High School Musical and Hannah Montana. To an outsider, she appears to be just another kid in second grade. To those who know her, she's the epitome of a hero.
After reading Anna Grace's story in a St. Jude Heroes mailing, Gaudian decided to run one more marathon. In May 2007, he ran the Fargo Marathon, and to qualify for the 2008 Boston Marathon, Gaudian needed to run a sub-3 hour, 35 minute marathon and he finished the race with a 3:32:58.
So this April, 50-year-old Gaudian will lace up his shoes and take his place on the starting line of the historic 112th Boston Marathon, likely with the image of St. Jude patient Anna Grace in his mind. Because of charity athletes like Gaudian, St. Jude has, since its inception, developed protocols that have helped push survival rates for childhood cancers from less than 20 percent to more than 70 percent overall. In 1962, the survival rate for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common form of childhood cancer, was 4 percent. Today, the survival rate for this once deadly disease is 94 percent thanks to research and treatment protocols developed at St. Jude.
For more information on how to become a St. Jude Hero, visit: StJudeHeroes.org.
Ryan Lamppa, Running USA Media Director
(805) 696-6232; Fax = (805) 659-0016
Ryan@RunningUSA.org
www.RunningUSA.org.
Know someone else who's interested in running and triathlon?
