Running To Help To Celebrate Turning 40, And Help Fight Leukemia, Melissa Pittz And Friends Complete Marathon

Melissa Pittz was striding through the four-mile Green Bluff Cherry Pickers’ Trot in July when she decided she wanted to run a marathon.

A recreational jogger since her college days, Pittz routinely runs four or five miles at a stretch. A marathon would be the perfect way to celebrate her 40th birthday, she thought.

But a marathon, a daunting 26.2 miles, is far from a morning sprint.

“I’ve run Bloomsday in the past, but not in any fast time,” said the Eaglewood woman.

When a friend told her “Team in Training” was running in the Honolulu Marathon on Dec. 14 to raise money for the Leukemia Society of America, Pittz jumped at the chance.

“I’m kind of like that; I sign on and work out the details later,” said Pittz, a social worker in the Mead School District.

Hearing about her plans, three other North Side women asked to join in her adventure.

The leukemia society quickly connected Pittz with 9-year old Sean Marie Leonard, a South Hill child diagnosed with leukemia in 1995, when she was 6 years old. Pittz ran in honor of the young girl. She also raised $3,200 for the society.

Sean Marie finished her last chemotherapy treatments in June. She spent the summer running, swimming and playing tennis.

“When her catheter was removed, she was suddenly like a whole new child, doing all the things her friends had been doing for a long time,” said her mom, Lynn Leonard.

“It’s exciting that people can give time and money to battle a disease that is so devastating to families,” said Leonard.

“I think it is really neat that people have so much support for cancer” patients, she added. “It is important that they keep doing research and doing more cures.”

Sean Marie still goes in monthly for blood tests and a checkup. Her leukemia is in remission and she has a 95 percent chance of full recovery.

“It makes you so thankful that you are healthy,” said her mom.

The third grader at Cataldo Catholic School said her inspiration throughout the three-year ordeal was her family.

“My family keeps me going,” she said.

Pittz said Sean Marie was her inspiration. Pittz wore a hospital armband with Sean’s name on it while training.

“If kids can go through all that treatment and all the stuff that goes with it, I can certainly run with a little pain,” said Pittz.

And pain there was. Blisters, muscle strains and pulls became a way of life.

Friends reminded her regularly that she doesn’t have the long, lean body usually associated with marathon runners.

It all added to her determination.

She left the house at 5:30 a.m. to train with Kim Lynch and Robin Bangs, who were joining her in the marathon.

In the beginning, they were casual acquaintances; by the end they were as close as sorority sisters.

“It really brought us close together,” said Pittz.

Lynch was mowing her lawn when Pittz walked over and chatted about her plans.

“I’d always wanted to run a marathon,” said Lynch, who works at Patsy Clark’s restaurant. “Now I’ve run three in the last three months.”

Bangs, who owns a commercial cleaning business with her husband, used the disciplined training as a way of relieving stress and channeling extra energy in a positive direction.

Neighbor Patti Griggs, a teacher at Arcadia Elementary School in Deer Park, also joined them, walking the course.

“I decided I wanted to do something memorable for my 40th birthday too - as long as I could walk it,” she said, laughing. “I got to enjoy the scenery.”

On Dec. 12, the women arrived at the Spokane airport to find it fogged in and flights canceled. After all that training, they weren’t about to miss the main event.

Bangs’ husband, Ken, gave them a ride to Moses Lake. They caught a plane from the remote airport to Seattle. From there they caught a flight to Hawaii, where they met up with Pittz’ sister, Shawn Clarke, from Canada.

The next morning they were up before dawn, joining some 30,000 other runners and walkers in Waikiki.

They followed a course through the city, past Diamondhead volcano, along the beach, then back toward the city. When the sun came up, the sky was overcast, but temperatures warmed into the 70s.

The winning woman runner crossed the finish line within 2-1/2 hours. Bangs, Lynch and Pittz finished in about five hours, and Griggs walked the route in seven hours.

“My goal was just to finish,” said Griggs.

“I cried the last half-mile,” said Pittz. “I thought, ‘I’ve done this, I’ve done this.”’

They celebrated with dinner, a lazy day on the beach, shopping and cruising Honolulu in a red convertible.

“It’s so relaxing over there,” said Pittz.

By Dec. 18 the whirlwind adventure was over and the marathoners returned to Spokane exhausted.

“I thought doing all this would be a lot more overwhelming than it was,” said Lynch. “When it was all over, I thought, ‘What next?”’ Besides meeting personal goals and challenges, the women built close friendships.

Each woman brought home the same souvenir T-shirt with words summing up their accomplishment: “Mana’o kino ‘uhane.”

It means “mind, body, spirit.”

“It was the first time I felt like I was really doing something,” said Pittz.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo