Positivity: The Race That Saved His Life
March 18, 2007
Ryan Gehrig won’t be out to set any records next Sunday in the 28th LaSalle Bank Shamrock Shuffle, but it would be nice if the event is a little less dramatic than it was last year.
Not that he regrets the 2006 race. In fact, Gehrig might be the only runner in the history of the event who can say the Shuffle saved his life.
”I had never run five miles before in my life,” Gehrig said. ”I was just running with my wife, Lindsey, and we ran the whole thing.
”I felt great.”
Until the next day.
”I started having chest pains,” he said. ”And they were severe enough that I went to the emergency room at Northwestern.”
X-rays were taken, and blood was drawn. It originally was thought that Gehrig, 28, simply overexerted his rib cage.
”I got a call the next day, and they said I should come back because they saw something on the X-rays,” Gehrig said. ”I got a little scared.”
His fear was confirmed when a biopsy revealed he had Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
”We all found it ironic,” Gehrig said. ”It was the first race I had ever run, and we all got pins from sponsors. And one of the pins was on, like, a Mardi Gras necklace, and it was from the Lymphoma Cancer Society.
”It was hanging on a door in our second bedroom when we found out. Every time I walk in that room, I see it, and it’s a good reminder to live your life.”
Irony wasn’t the first thing to cross Lindsey’s mind. The two had been married in November 2005, so it was understandable that her first reaction was feeling like she would pass out. But she found strength in her husband.
”Ryan just has a positive attitude about everything in life, and he applied that to this situation as well,” she said.
Because he caught it early enough, Gehrig’s prognosis was relatively encouraging. Still, he had to undergo chemotherapy every other week for six months.
”It was the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through,” he said. ”It felt like you had a terrible flu the day you got it.
”I would get it on a Thursday, and I wouldn’t be able to eat until Sunday. It’s a good weight-loss program.”
Fortunately, Gehrig, a native of Wheaton, felt strong enough that he didn’t miss much work as a data engineer for TransUnion.
After four months, all that remained were scar tissue and the realization that a silly 8K race helped save his life.
”If it hadn’t been for the Shamrock Shuffle, I don’t know how he would have caught it, other than at some point maybe feeling a lump,” Lindsey said. ”And when it gets to that stage, maybe Stage 4, it’s much more difficult.”
Ryan is even more emphatic in the role the race played.
”I caught it before a lot of the symptoms developed,” he said. ”So that was excellent.
”It was 100 percent entirely because of the race that I found it. The Shamrock Shuffle saved my life.” …..
