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Apr 1, 2008 11:57 am US/Eastern
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Running Boston As A Foot Soldier In War On Cancer
NEWTON (WBZ) ―
Training on the vaunted Newton Hills is a walk in the park for Marine Corps Reserves Lt. Colonel Spencer Farrar. He can run without a weapon; there's no threat of mortars, and the mercury never reaches 115 degrees.
"When I got to Iraq, the conditions were pretty strenuous and trying and running was really one of the only outlets that I and others could engage in order to blow off some steam," Lt. Farrar told WBZ-TV's Peg Rusconi.
It was 2004, during the second phase of ground operations in Iraq.
"You would start at the back gate and go down the main route," Lt. Farrar said, describing the tiny route he ran on his base in Ramadi. One pass took a mere 45 seconds.
It was a monotonous route, in sweltering conditions, but for Spencer Farrar, it is where the running bug bit.
"Going to Iraq and coming back a re-born runner is not what I had envisioned initially, that's for sure."
Since his return, Farrar has completed two marathons and he is about to tackle Boston. His race day uniform will be the multi-colored singlet of the
Dana Farber Cancer Institute, one of 24 official Boston Marathon charities.
"It really is just a representation of all the people I know who have cancer," Lt. Farrar explained.
His parents are survivors. A friend's child is fighting cancer. He just lost a friend to leukemia.
"The day before my friend Bob Lawrence passed away, and I was thinking to myself as I was getting fatigued and tired, no matter how bad I have it right now there are people who have it a lot worse."
And that is the inspiration for this marine who will run Boston as a foot soldier in the war on cancer.
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