Woman hits the road for cancer
Published 4:28 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008
Debbie Givens loves to run. She also loves helping people, and so she combined the two passions into one activity – raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team In Training (TNT) program.
With more than 30,000 athletes participating each year, TNT is one of the largest endurance training and fundraising programs in the country. Since 1988, volunteer athletes have undergone personalized training from experienced coaches to run or walk a 26.2-mile marathon, a 13.1-mile half marathon, ride in a 100-mile bicycle race or complete a triathlon or half ironman.
Debbie, the information technology (IT) director for the Port of Tacoma, lives with her husband Joe on Snoqualmie Ridge. They have been married for 13 years. Joe is a full-time bus driver for Metro and is also known as the Ridge’s resident “podcaster” with his “Snoqualmie Joe” audio blog.
About 10 years ago, Debbie started running. “I’ve always been an active person, concerned about my physical fitness,” she said. After she twisted her ankle during an aerobics class, she had to do something else to stay in shape.
“So, I choose to start walking on the treadmill. Well, walking led to running on the treadmill,” she said. For several years, she was content to run indoors. That changed after a co-worker encouraged her to enter a race. She ran three and a half miles in March 2000 in the Seattle St. Patrick’s Day Dash.
“I was hooked [and] from then on I was an outdoor runner,” said Debbie. She started running longer and longer distances, completing her first half marathon in September 2001. Although she also ran a variety of smaller distance races, the half marathon became her favorite.
“It’s very doable,” she said. “It doesn’t require training for six months to get in shape to run it.”
After running three more half marathons, however, she wanted to go farther still. “So I made it a New Year’s resolution that I was going to run a marathon.”
She did just that in June 2002 at San Diego’s Suzuki Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon, clocking in at a respectable four hours and 26 minutes and placing 5,709th out of 16,539 participants.
“You’d think that I’d want to quit after my first one because I trained really, really hard … probably over-trained,” said Debbie.
“As I got closer and closer I started having problems with my leg, and I ignored it because I didn’t want to hear that there was something wrong that would stop me from doing it.”
Debbie went on to run the whole marathon on a stress fracture. This put her out of the running circuit for a while, but not for long.
Her second marathon was also a bit of a misadventure, as Debbie hadn’t even planned on running in it. The Givens’ had signed up for a half marathon in Vancouver, B.C. in May 2003. Upon arrival, however, they discovered that there had been a paperwork mix-up, and that they were both entered into the full marathon. Joe, while a competent runner in his own right, was not ready for a full marathon, but Debbie wanted to go for it.
“I said, ‘I didn’t come all this way not to get my medal,’ and they wouldn’t let me in the half because it was full,” said Debbie. “So I ran the full marathon.”
She finished with another respectable time of four hours and 47 minutes and got her medal, despite incurring another injury during the race.
Next she traveled to Cincinnati, Ohio, for the Flying Pig Marathon in May 2004. The third largest “first-time marathon” in the country, the run has a reputation for being a very well organized, if slightly goofy, race.
“I thought, ‘You know, I just want to do one that’s just really fun.'” Debbie and a co-worker who was a marathon walker went ahead and signed up on “kind of a lark.”
While there were no injuries or emergencies, the race’s conclusion was a bit of a challenge. Around mile 21, Debbie started having trouble keeping up. At that point, Joe hopped in to help motivate her to finish strong, running with his wife and cheering her on.
While it had been her goal to run one marathon a year, she soon injured herself again. The injury didn’t stop her from completing two more half marathons, but her serious running was essentially put on hold until this past June, when she finished her degree in business management from the University of Phoenix.
As soon as the degree was earned, she was back to running. “It was like June, and then it was like boom, time for a marathon,” Debbie said.
“Well, this time though, I had two goals in mind. I had a real desire to do something charitable and I thought, if there’s one thing that I really love, and that’s my passion, it’s running. And to combine my passion with charity really fit for me.”
Debbie and Joe attended a Team In Training orientation and felt compelled to join the cause.
“So we went and we really felt like it was an organization that we could support and it was most definitely a cause we could support,” Debbie said.
Her team’s run will take place in January at the P.F. Chang’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon in Phoenix, Ariz.
Her fundraising, or commitment, goal is Oct. 15. After that point, any deficient has to be paid by the Givens.
As it stands, she has about $500 of her $3,800 goal. The Givens’ approach to fundraising has been fairly low-key so far, mostly confined to one-on-one requests, mass e-mails and promises from friends. Right now, however, they need to redouble their fundraising efforts over the next month. “We need to get going,” Debbie said.
She trains with a team of about 30 TNT runners, and a cancer victim is attached to their group so the runner can have someone to identify with.
Debbie also recently found out that a co-worker’s sister is suffering from lymphoma. “It’s just ironic that now there’s a personal connection for me and I feel more like there’s a direct benefit to somebody I know,” she said.
Joe’s role has been an actively supportive one. “Joe’s been instrumental in keeping me motivated,” she said.
“I’m the ‘rah-rah,’ I give her support, I cheer her on,” said Joe, who accompanies his wife to races. “Every time she crosses the finish line of any race, you can hear me. She always knows where I am,” he said.
“I am very proud of her. She’s done things I could never have done,” Joe said. “I mean, go to school, get your degree, while she works part time at a very stressful job … running a marathon period, much less on a stress fracture – which is crazy. She’s an all-around good gal.”
Debbie says that running for the Team In Training in the Phoenix Marathon is her way of giving back, having lost her mother and an aunt to cancer.
“It’s just devastating to me, and I am personally touched by cancer. I know just about everybody can say that they’ve been touched by cancer in one way or another. And the only way to further the battle is to fund research, so … this is one way I can help.”
“Please donate for a worthy cause,” said Joe. To donate,
look for the link at
www.joegivens.com.
