Darryl Brueggeman is a cancer survivor that my entire team is running in honor of at the Nike Marathon. In 2006 Darryl started getting back spasms and decided to see a doctor. Within 20 minutes he was admitted to the hospital and a while later was diagnosed with advanced Hodgkin’s Lymphoma on March 22, 2006. Darryl underwent almost 8 cycles of chemotherapy and today is cancer free.
During his treatment, Darryl's wife signed up with Team in Training because she felt like she needed to do something. When Darryl was in recovery he joined her and together they trained for their first marathon. Darryl’s treatments began taking too much of a toll on his body, so he had to stop training- but his wife was able to run the marathon. Darryl wrote the following about the experience, "My wife continued and participated in the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco. She ran/walked 26.2 miles and I was there at the finish line to see her cross. I burst into tears, i was so proud of her. She became my hero that day."
This weekend Darryl and his UC Davis Oncologist will be competing with Team in Training's cycle team at the century ride in Lake Tahoe. Darryl says, "I have seen first hand the work of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the great experience of Team in Training."
Darryl is one of my honored teammates and his story inspires me.
Read this recent story as published in the Sac Bee on April 13, 2007:
"Ride to celebrate journey to health
Cancer survivor trains for 100-mile bicycle trip.
By Blair Anthony Robertson - Bee Staff Writer
http://www.sacbee.com/500/story/154222.html
Darryl Brueggeman has an extra-strong back these days, fortified as it is by two titanium rods, two cross braces and eight screws.
Cancer, discovered and treated in 2006, nearly devoured his spine. The surgically installed hardware kept his back from snapping. The subsequent chemotherapy rid his body of the Hodgkin's lymphoma altogether.
Then it was time to live the rest of his life.
Some people who come face to face with death are so moved by the experience that it transforms them. They become new people. They climb mountains, sail around the world, quit their office jobs and become gourmet chefs or, most famously, they grow back their hair and win seven consecutive Tours de France.
Brueggeman, a 44-year-old aircraft mechanic at Travis Air Force Base who lives with his wife in Sacramento, wanted to do something big, too, though he knew his aching, weakened body would need an overhaul. Even during chemotherapy, he started training for a marathon, but he eventually abandoned that plan in agony.
When he was through with his treatments, he thought he would train for a 100-mile bike ride, also known as a century.
Brueggeman bought a $1,200 Cannondale road bike, and from the Lance Armstrong Foundation, a Livestrong T-shirt and a yellow wrist band he hasn't removed from his wrist since.
Sure, he wanted to get back in shape. But he soon realized it was more than that. He was riding to make a statement.
"I want to finish the ride -- to prove that I'm alive, that I'm healed, that I'm done," he said.
He read Armstrong's acclaimed book, "It's Not About the Bike," and was moved by the cyclist's experience.
"He had this goal to get back on the bike. I decided that when I got through with chemo, I would do that bike ride," he said.
When he told his doctor a few months ago about his plan, the doctor had an unusual response: Sign me up, too.
Now, Brueggeman and his oncologist-hematologist, Ari Umutyan, 33, are on the same cycling team with Team In Training, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's national fitness program that prepares people for marathons, long-distance bike rides and triathlons while raising money to fund research.
The doctor and patient are among 98 cyclists in the Sacramento chapter training to do the 100-mile ride around Lake Tahoe on June 3, dubbed "America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride."
Umutyan, who practices at UC Davis Medical Center, was already a cyclist when Brueggeman told him about the plan to ride the century.
As a young doctor who treats cancer patients, Umutyan says he tries to connect "on an emotional level" with those he treats. He had already given Brueggeman his personal cell phone number and had kept up with his progress.
"It's pretty amazing when someone comes to you in a despairing situation, and they are able to produce this type of strength and motivation to do something like this," Umutyan said. "I think it inspires anyone who doesn't have cancer."
There are five cancer survivors among the 98 cyclists on the squad, according to Lonnie Biehl, team director for the greater Sacramento chapter.
"It's an inspiration. There are people on the team like Darryl who really help the rest of the team stay motivated," Biehl said.
Brueggeman has his own source of inspiration to draw upon when the going gets tough on a training ride. Sure, he thinks about Armstrong and that smooth pedaling action. But when he needs to dig deep it's his wife Miriam's athletic exploits that come to mind.
The Brueggemans got married four years ago. They met via a dating Web site, Match.com.
When he was getting eight months of chemotherapy treatments, she decided to motivate him by training for a marathon herself. She completed the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco in October.
Recalling the event, she said, "The first half was pretty easy, but then it got tough and I wanted to quit. But I thought, 'If he could go through chemo, I can do 26 miles.' "
Now, Darryl Brueggeman finds himself thinking, "If she can do 26 miles, I can do this bike ride."
