Marathon Training During Chemotherapy for Follicular Lymphoma

Hi, my name is Lee Strandjord. I’m a husband, father of 3, grandfather of 2, a physicist and a marathon runner. I’ve ran the Twin City marathon twice, once in 2006 and again last year in 2007. Last year I underwent a monumental change. Struggling with poor eating habits and sporadic physical conditioning, I reach a turning point in March of 07 when I stepped on the bathroom scale and had 199 lbs staring into my face. There was no way I was going to let scale reach 200. At that point I decided to start serious marathon training and change my diet.

By marathon time in early October, I lost over 30 lbs and was poised to beat my previous TC marathon time (4:58) by about 1 hour. It was the hottest TC marathon day on record. Compared to the previous year, a thousand more runners dropped out of the race, but I still completed the race in 4:09. After the race I set my sights on other races, such as Grandma’s marathon in Duluth MN. I was on the top of my world. I was in fantastic shape, I discovered I loved running marathons, I lost 6 inches off my waist, and I had a whole new wardrobe. My work was going well with a recent promotion to a prestigious position and best of all; I have a wonderful family life. The only cloud in the sky was a scheduled hernia surgery that would interrupt my running for about 3 to 4 weeks. My biggest concern was gaining weight during my recovery time. Little did I know what I was about to face.

During my hernia surgery I had a lymph node biopsy that was first tested positive for Diffused Large B-Cell Lymphoma (DLBCL), which is an aggressive cancer of the lymphatic system. My oncologist gave me about 3 to 6 months to live without successful treatment. Up to about 50% of patients with DLBCL are curable. At first, I was devastated. I was looking at a six shooter revolver with half of its barrels loaded. But then I decided the only way I was going to be was positive. I was going to be in the 50% group that would be cured. However, a second opinion from the Mayo Clinic showed that I really have grade-3 follicular lymphoma (FL), a much less aggressive, slower growing lymphoma. It sounds a lot less scary than DLBCL, but in reality, chemo is less effective on slower growing cancer cells and therefore FL is not curable. The change in diagnosis however didn’t change my treatment plans. Chemo was still recommended since I have a large tumor around my small bowl and I have a more advanced stage of FL. The goal is to put my cancer into remission, for possibility years. Based on how I rank with the Follicular Lymphoma International Prognostic Indicators (FLIPI), I have a pretty good chance of living 20 years or more. So there is a lot to be positive about. I have a fighting chance to live a fulfilling life.

To fight cancer I’m taking a holistic approach, integrating both conventional and alternative methods. I’m augmenting chemo therapy with physical conditioning and healthy eating. I’ll have a total of 6 or 8 chemo treatments of R-CHOP on a 3 week cycle. I had my first Chemo treatment just before Christmas. Besides a little fatigue during the first couple of days afterwards and some heartburn, I’ve been feeling great! I attribute much of that to my excellent physical condition going into chemo. Three days after my chemo treatment my surgery was healed enough so I started running again. For me running isn’t just about the body, but also the mind. My runs started at 2 to 3 miles each day and quickly increased to 5 miles on most days. This last week I ran a total of 33 miles with a long run of 11 miles on Saturday.

My running has gone unexpectedly well after my first chemo treatment, so I have decided to do an experiment – run in Grandma’s marathon on June 21st, 2008, which means completing most of my marathon training while undergoing relatively aggressive chemo therapy. Sounds crazy? I believe it’s a long shot, but not impossible, not yet. My goal is to finish Grandma’s in just under 6 hours, the regulation time allowed before the course is closed. With that in mind, my training will be focused mostly on distance and not speed. At this time I’m running my long runs at a pace that would complete a marathon in 4:22 or less. I’ll keep that pace as long as I can. But most likely the Chemo will lower my red blood cell count, which will make it more difficult to run at a fast pace. When that happens, I’ll slow my pace to try to keep long runs long. Near the end of my chemo treatments, my weekly long runs will need to be about 20 miles.

So follow me on my journey to Grandma’s marathon. I’ll be updating my blog site on a weekly basis with my progress. My hope is to inspire other’s to use physical conditioning to make a positive difference in their lives.