Run, Karla, Run!

(Photo: K-Swiss)

Runners raise $650 million annually to fight cancer. Now California Sports Company K-Swiss is getting in the spirit too. They’ve teamed up with Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C), an initiative to accelerate groundbreaking cancer research, to create a line of footwear and apparel built to help every athlete fight cancer. K-Swiss will contribute $5 from the sale of each product in the collection to Stand Up To Cancer through Dec. 31, 2013.

“Collaborating with Stand Up To Cancer gives us a valuable opportunity to support and help inspire a movement to save lives,” said David Nichols, executive vice-president of K-Swiss. “We are excited to create a unified front across the running community and encourage people, from their first 5K or first triathlon, to race for a world without cancer.”

The collection features running and lifestyle shoes, and performance, running and triathlon apparel including shorts, tanks, reflective jackets and more. Read the rest of this entry →

The 2011 Foot Locker Five Borough Challengers (Photo: nycmarathon.org)

Are you running the ING New York City Marathon on Nov. 4? Do you live in one of New York City’s five boroughs? You could be a part of the Foot Locker Five Borough Challenge, a race within a race at the ING New York City Marathon.

Five runners—one from each of New York City’s boroughs of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island—run together for the first half of the race, and then face off against each other in the second.

This year, Foot Locker is looking for team members who have used running to overcome significant challenges in their lives. Read the rest of this entry →

The 20th Anniversary Walt Disney World Marathon course. (Photo: runDisney)

When runDisney promised new features for the 20^th Anniversary Walt Disney World Marathon, they weren’t joking.

Disney Sports announced that the Walt Disney World Marathon course will be modified for the race to take runners not only though the four Walt Disney World theme parks, but also through the Walt Disney World Speedway and the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex including Champion Stadium, a major-league style ballpark that the Atlanta Braves call home for spring training.

“Running through the speedway and the ballpark should provide quite a thrill for the runners,’’ said race director Jon Hughes. “These very creative enhancements should make for a pretty memorable 20^th anniversary marathon that people will probably be talking about for 20 more years.’’

Other changes unique to the 20^th anniversary include extra entertainment along Mile 20, a specially designed 20^th anniversary Mickey Mouse medal and a new post-race party at Downtown Disney. Read the rest of this entry →

Laura holds me on her lap when we were kids in the early 1980s. Now she has two kids of her own.

Thanks to the support of friends, family and the kindness of strangers, my cousin Laura is leaving for a cancer center in California on Sunday, May 13 for a new round of treatments for clear cell sarcoma, the rare cancer that she has been battling for over a year.

Sunday is Mother’s Day and it will be a bittersweet one for Laura–she’s leaving her kids in Florida with her mother and sister (who has flown in from Oklahoma), while she and her husband head West for her treatments. But Laura knows that seeking more treatments to fight for her life is the the best thing she can do for her kids.

Laura has also been taking a new cancer drug that won’t cure the cancer, but can slow its progress. She and her doctors are hoping that with a multi-prong approach, she will overcome! Read the rest of this entry →

Running as Prince Charming and Cinderella. (Photo: brightroom)

Disney’s Expedition Everest Challenge took place Saturday night May 5 in Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom theme park in Florida. Runners faced a 5K laden with obstacles and clues to a mystery they had to solve in order to finish. Some runners tackled the race in Disney running costumes, dressed as their favorite Disney characters, like Minnie Mouse, and others ran as the fearsome Yeti of the Expedition Everest roller coaster.

As a veteran of three Disney races—the Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon, Tinker Bell Half Marathon, and Disney’s Princess Half Marathon—I know the slide down that particular rabbit hole all too well. After running my first runDisney race sans costume and my second Disney race in a store bought Tinker Bell costume, I decided to go all out for my third Disney race. I learned from Team Sparkle running costumer extraordinaire Kelly Lewis that when it comes to pulling off successful Disney running costumes that are comfortable and easy to run in, the devil is in the details.

Armed with a few pieces of basic running gear and a creative outlook, my fiancé and I transformed into Cinderella and Prince Charming’s athletic alter egos for Disney’s Princess Half Marathon in February. Here’s how to make your own Cinderella and Prince Charming Disney running costumes. Best of all, the only tools you need are a needle, thread, safety pins and tape. Read the rest of this entry →

My cousin, Laura Densmore, and her children while she was going through chemotherapy. (Photo: Pam Saxon)

Whenever I have a small problem that I can’t solve or I’m angry or frustrated, I go for a run. Running helps me clear my head, blow off steam, and find a few moments of Zen in an otherwise hectic day.

But what about big problems, the real problems in life like hunger, disaster, and disease? Runners have been fighting to solve those too. In 2011, the top 30 exercise fundraising programs in the U.S. raised $1.69 billion for charity, according to the Run Walk Ride Fundraising Council. That doesn’t include smaller programs and charities that place runners in races like the ING New York City Marathon, which raised $34 million for 210 charities in 2011. According to Runner’s World, $650 million of runner fundraising annually goes to fight cancer alone.

Back in 2007, I ran my first marathon for Team Continuum, a charity that provides financial, educational and moral support for cancer patients. Now, I’m doing it again. But this time the cause is much closer to home.

My cousin Laura Bruning Densmore is fighting for her life, and I’m helping her the only way I know—by running. Read the rest of this entry →