Ken Martin is battling cancer, story from Indy Star, note by Larry Eder

By Larry Eder on April 3, 2013 10:47 PM | 0 Comments
Ken Martin, one of the top US steeplechasers in the late seventies, early 1980s, moved to the marathon. By 1989, he had run a 2:09:38, and taken second in the NYC Marathon. Today, he is battling cancer and trying to find the link between cancer and exercise. You will be inspired by his bravery....
Martin_KenFH-NYC89.JPG
Ken Martin, NYC Marathon, 1989, 
photo by PhotoRun.net

It was October 1983, and I had just run the Nike OTC Marathon rather poorly. I was running up in Eugene, around the University of Oregon when I saw Ken Martin on a short run. Martin, a former U of O steeplechaser, was training with his then-wife, Lisa Martin, a top Australian marathoner. Ken Martin was well liked on the circuit, and always seemed pretty mellow during his college and post collegiate running. 

Martin had been a top steeplechaser while at Oregon, and then, in 1984 and 1985, started running longer distances. In 1989, Martin ran a 2:09:38 for the marathon, finishing second in the NYC Marathon, and running the best performance by an American in the Big Apple in many years. Victah Sailer, one of the top photographers in the sport, recently called Ken a " great athlete and a good guy". 

Now, Ken Martin is battling a tougher adversary. He has non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, and while he put the cancer in remission, a more aggressive form of cancer developed, and  he will be having, in mid April a blood stem cell transplant, to make sure that the cancer does not recur. 

Here is a story on Ken Martin and his battle with cancer. Note that Ken has started a program to determine if there is a link between exercise and cancer. His foundation is called www.workoutcancer.org.  The guy had been, until recently, training for eleven months to break the best mile on record by a 50-55 year old male: 4:25. He had to quit that level of training when the cancer returned. 

Keep Ken Martin, his wife Stephanie and their three kids, 9, 14, 15, in your thoughts and prayers. 

Larry Eder

Larry Eder

Bio: Larry Eder has had a 44 year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub 4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Track & Field to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself."

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Categories:

Tags:

  • Jack Daniels,
  • Ken Martin,
  • Marathon,
  • Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma,
  • Steeplechase,
  • University of Oregon

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