Jodie Forman lost her mother-in-law to pancreatic cancer this July, after a year-long battle. She said she found Project Purple after searching for a way to honor her and will be running the New York City Marathon in November.
“I applied not long after she passed, and got in within a few hours,” she said. Forman says she expected to just run a 5k, but that talking to members of the organization made her want to run a full marathon, despite only having a few months to prepare.
“I like the pressure, and I’m kind of competitive,” she said. “My goal is currently to run less than a ten-minute mile whenever I train. Typically, I run one long run on a weekend and two shorter, faster runs during the week.”
She said she has also had an easy time raising funds, and that people have been very generous. “I think it’s because the death of my mother-in-law was so recent,” she said. “People were already asking how they could help and honor her.”
She also said that she looks forward to being able to run with the rest of the Project Purple team on race day, since she has been training on her own. “It can be boring running alone!” Forman said.
