At 5 a.m. on Sunday, October 18, most of JC was sleeping off a night of dancing, but junior Chelsea Shock was awake in San Francisco, getting ready to run a race that she will never forget.
The names of sponsors from her Shock Cancer fundraisers written in Sharpie covered her arms, legs, and face while wearing she wore knee-high socks, and a tutu to match her mom. As music played, they, along with 20,000 other women crammed the course to begin the first of the 13.1 miles of the Nike Women’s Half-Marathon, which benefited the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Betty Shock, Chelsea’s mother and a five year Hodgkin’s Lymphoma survivor, found this as the perfect opportunity to celebrate overcoming the cancer. Both of them had been training with Team in Training, a sports program connected to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, for months in preparation for the race.
“The race was gorgeous. Mile six and nine were both up mountains, but mile ten was downhill on the beach which was beautiful,” said Chelsea, “We got to run past the Golden Gate Bridge and saw everything you would want to see in San Francisco.”
At the last mile, Chelsea was exhausted, “But when I saw the finish line, I just sprinted towards it.”
Greeted with a hug from San Francisco firefighters dressed in tuxedos, Chelsea and her mother, along with all of the women participants, received a Tiffany’s box with a silver necklace inside that read “Nike Women’s Half-Marathon.”
Chelsea said, “Everyone was so supportive, just cheering you on through the end.”
The night before the race, there was a pre-race dinner held at the Marriot Hotel. “Everyone just cheered for us as we walked in; my mom and I just cried. It was so inspirational,” Chelsea said, “It was also so great to hear everyone’s stories. I’ve never heard so many people say ‘I’ve had Hodgkin’s Lymphoma’ before.”
Though most of Shock’s efforts through Shock Cancer went toward the race, she does not plan to stop there. “It’s going to keep going. My church, Central Christian, is letting me celebrate mass on December 6, to share my story and have lunch [with the parishioners],” said Chelsea.
Taylor Schafer can be reached for comment at [email protected].
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