I am lacing up my running shoes with a purpose: to support those battling cancer, AGAIN.

My mom isn’t just my best friend; she’s my hero. Ten years ago, cancer entered our lives for the first time when my mom was diagnosed with lymphoma. I remember the fear in my gut when she and my dad told me. But more than that, I remember her being the one who stayed strong for me.

She faced surgery, treatment, and recovery with quiet ferocity. When my mom is faced with a challenge, she has the most incredible willpower of anyone I know. She put everything she had into her recovery. And she beat it.

Then, just two years ago, I got the call I never expected to come again. A routine screening showed that my mom now had bone cancer.

I’ll never forget her words: “I have cancer again, and I’m going to beat it again.”

The last time I ran for this organization and asked for your support, my mom was completing chemotherapy. Today, I am so incredibly happy to say that she is in remission. And I don’t take a single day of that for granted.

Every mile I run, I think of her. I hear her voice, and I channel that immense willpower to push myself a little further, to be a little better, and to prove to myself that I can do hard things.

Running the Tokyo Marathon means so much to me, but the journey that got me here means even more. Brian, the program manager at Haymakers, is one of the reasons I’m running this race. Two years ago, I applied for a Boston bib and wasn’t selected. Instead, I ran other races for Haymakers and raised more than $13,000 to fight cancer. Brian told me something I needed to hear: I was going to have to qualify for Boston on my own because he believed I could do it.

So I did. I broke three hours in the marathon. And then I did it again, just two weeks later. Now, next April, I am finally running the Boston Marathon!!!

Running Tokyo isn’t just about crossing another finish line. It’s about continuing to honor my mom’s courage, her willpower, and her absolute refusal to give up. It’s about hoping I inherited even half of that fight from her to carry me through 26.2 miles.

I’m running for her. I’m running for everyone who has found themselves in a fight they never chose but refused to lose.

Thank you for believing in me, supporting me, and being part of this journey.