A Minnesota runner battling cancer goes on to run over 600 marathons. Tom Perri from Maple Grove, Minnesota, has had a lifelong obsession with running ever since his first race in the eighth grade. By the time he was diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer in 2019, the 60-year-old runner had logged more than 100-thousand race miles, competed in over 2-thousand races including more than 400 marathons, and had finished a sub-four-hour marathon in all 50 states.
When he got his cancer diagnosis, Perri went through aggressive treatment which included removing his prostate and undergoing 38 rounds of radiation. For the first time since 1975, he went more than four days without running, but he refused to let his medical problems keep him from his passion for long. “I could either just sit in the chair and watch life go by," he remembers deciding, "or continue life as is and maybe be a runner, but just not as fast as I used to be.”
Since that day in 2019, Perri has gone on to run more than 120 marathons or ultra-marathons, including the Fargo Marathon earlier this year that marked his 600th marathon. He’s no longer running to win races, but instead has carved out a spot as a well known pacer, a runner who helps motivate other runners to keep to the goal pace. It’s his work as a pacer that Perri hopes he’ll be remembered by. For a guy who’s achieved so many goals, now he loves helping others achieve theirs.
Source: Yahoo
Photo: Getty Images