How distance running helped a Michigan woman beat cancer – MLive.com

KALAMAZOO, MI – “You never know how strong you are until you have to be.”

A wooden box displays that message prominently on Lisa Schreiner’s desk, reminding her of a 12-month journey that saw her do the unthinkable.

Schreiner not only beat stage 1 breast cancer, she did so without missing a day of work at the Stryker Corporation and without allowing the disease to take away her passion for running.

In the words of Schreiner’s friend and running partner Sarah Yetter, “She made cancer look easy.”

In reality, beating cancer was anything but easy for the 53-year-old Galesburg resident, but with a positive mindset and a refusal to let the disease dictate her life, she helped her friends and the greater Kalamazoo running community gain a new perspective on the dreaded diagnosis.

On Sunday, Schreiner will run the Borgess Half Marathon for the first time since being declared cancer-free in June 2018.

She won’t set any records during her 13.1-mile trek through Kalamazoo, and that’s OK with her because just being out there feels like a blessing.

An eye-opening moment

Lisa and Bob Schreiner married in March 2000, and two weeks after their wedding, Bob was diagnosed with leukemia, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow.

Doctors discovered a large tumor inside his chest that collapsed his right lung and blocked a major vein carrying blood from his upper body to his heart.

Emergency radiation initially shrunk the tumor and started a two-year treatment plan of chemotherapy and more radiation.

A police officer and practitioner of martial arts, Bob was a strong and active man when he started treatment, but toward the end, he struggled to walk.

After two years, Bob beat the disease and entered remission thanks in large part due to his fitness level in the early stages, and that inspired his wife to start her own healthier lifestyle.

“When he got through treatment, I thought, ‘I need to be in the best physical condition I can be in, in case something ever happens to me,'” Lisa said. “There came a turning point when I decided to focus on my health, and I thought, ‘I’m not going to stay late to finish my work; it’ll be here tomorrow. I’ll go home and go for a run.'”

It started with short runs — a couple miles here, a couple miles there — until she worked her way up to 10Ks and eventually half marathons, thanks to some training and support from the Borgess Run Camp and the Kalamazoo Area Runners organization.

It wasn’t long before her new running friends talked her into trying her first 26.2-mile course at the Grand Rapids Marathon.

The new distance suited Lisa well, and she went on to complete 24 more marathons, including Boston in 2012, plus the 33.5-mile Kal-Haven Ultra Marathon.

Then, during a routine mammogram in June 2017, she heard the three words: “You have cancer.”

“My first thought was, ‘How is this going to affect my running?’ but what I didn’t realize was how running was going to help me through the treatment like it did,” Lisa said.

Running at Lisa Speed

After her diagnosis, Lisa started a 12-week chemotherapy treatment, followed by a six-week radiation regimen.

She saw how the disease ravaged her husband, but wanted to keep running until the chemotherapy overwhelmed her. Radiation was sure to be worse, so Lisa assumed her days on the pavement were numbered, and that she’d take it one step at a time.

But in Week 6 of chemotherapy, she ran 6.2 miles in Portage’s Peacock Strut 10K and decided that for every additional week of chemo, she’d spend the following Saturday running that many miles.

There was a lot of walking, particularly during her 11 and 12-mile trips in the final two weeks, but she kept her goal and named her new, slower pace “Lisa Speed.”

“When her diagnosis happened, she was super positive about the whole thing and took it like it was fine,” said Yetter, who met Lisa at Borgess Run Camp and ran with her every weekend during treatment. “I wanted to run with her and do what distance she wanted at what pace she wanted, and as a friend, that’s the least you can do.

“On the days that I didn’t want to run, she was the motivation because she was going through chemo, and if she could find the strength to run, so could I.”

Lisa’s friends in Kalamazoo and her doctors in Ann Arbor struggled to comprehend how she logged so many miles during such a taxing procedure, and but they couldn’t argue with the results.

Even after starting radiation, she was able to complete an 11-mile race around Gull Lake and visited her doctor later that day, showing only a few signs of fatigue.

“The doctor told me that day how the exercise that I am getting is helping me with treatments and will also help with my recovery,” she said. “By keeping the blood cells moving, this is also helping my skin to tolerate the burning effects of the radiation.”

“There was a time during treatment where my blood levels dropped off, so I had to have a shot every day to boost my blood levels,” she added. “I asked the doctor, ‘Should I be running because my blood levels are low?’ and they said, ‘Absolutely.'”

But to Lisa, running was only part of the remedy.

#TeamLisa

Gazelle Sports on the Kalamazoo Mall served as a meet-up point for Lisa and some of her friends before starting their long Saturday runs during her chemotherapy, but one weekend late in her treatment, there seemed to be an abnormally large number of people buzzing around the store.

“I walked in Gazelle that morning to meet there and run, and I saw this young man that I recognized, but hadn’t met before, and he had #TeamLisa on his shirt, and I thought, ‘Hmm, that’s odd. I wonder how he got that? I wonder if that’s me?'” she said. “I saw a few more people with that shirt, and even a friend of mine that was either not feeling well or injured at the time, and I knew she couldn’t run, so I knew something was going on.”

What Lisa discovered was 30-some supporters all wearing #TeamLisa shirts and bandanas around their heads in solidarity with their friend, who had just lost her hair to the chemotherapy.

“Between my coworkers being so supportive of me here, and then the run community and my friends going Lisa-speed to keep me going, that is what kept me going through treatment, and that’s what keeps me going to this day,” she said. “I don’t run for speed because I’m still on the rebound speed-wise, but I don’t care.

“I’m just so happy to be out there, and during treatment, I felt so blessed that I’d be able to continue to run.”

‘Don’t succumb to the diagnosis’

When doctors declared her cancer-free in June 2018, it was a joyous occasion for Lisa, her family and her friends, but she couldn’t help but feel guilty for the way she “cruised through” her treatment, especially after watching her husband struggle through treatment for two years.

“I feel like my treatment was a lot easier than treatments that others have gone through,” she said. “There are obviously other chemos that others have gone through that are harder on your body and less tolerable, but I credit everything to the fact that I did keep moving and didn’t let cancer win.”

In the 10 months since her remission, Lisa has mentored friends and friends of friends going through cancer treatment, and her message is consistent: “Don’t just sit on the couch and let this overcome you.”

“Cancer is a diagnosis, and you can overcome it,” she said. “Don’t succumb to the diagnosis; go on with your life.

“One out of two people they say will be diagnosed with cancer, so it could be you. Cancer is not picky, and it will pick anyone, whether you’re in good health, bad health or have any bad health lifestyles — it doesn’t matter.

“I think it’s important for everyone to focus on their health in case something like this does ever happen to them.”