Hi, this is Debbie Boyle's coach at Mojo for Running with podcast number 63, life-saving advice for all runners.

This episode is a bit of a departure from the norm, but it may be the single most valuable

Mojo for Running podcast you will ever listen to. There are a couple of stories I want to tell,

and they might change or save your life. A number of years ago, I are a couple of stories I want to tell, and they might change or save

your life. A number of years ago, I met up with a group of people for a run, and one of the men in

the group that day was someone I had never met before. Jack happened to be about my speed, so of course

we fell into running and chatting, and you know how those things go.

Before I knew it, we had been running well over an hour.

He mentioned that he often ran marathons and also did triathlons,

but that he had not been doing as much training as usual,

because much of his time was spent caring for his wife.

Then he told me about his wife.

She was a marathon runner as well,

but she started having back pain a while back. She had, of course, assumed that it was running related, and she got deep tissue massages, did more massaging herself, tried more foam rolling,

more stretching, adjusting her gait, and worked to build up her core more,

but it just seemed that nothing helped. She finally did go to see the doctor, and eventually,

and I mean after several months of putting up with this annoyance, she had an x-ray, breast

cancer. Yep, that was what was causing the back pain all along. I can't remember what

stage it was now. That was a few years ago, but it was pretty advanced. And at the time that we were

running, he was not very hopeful. That was the last time I even ever ran with him, but I did hear

later that his wife had passed away.

I learned from that lesson, and I hope you will too. Two lessons. No one is ever immune to any

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