Cancer survivor runs for health and to raise money for others
He credits the "five G's" for his health: "good treatment, good doctors, a good wife, the good Lord and good luck."Rodriguez is grateful to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society for funding research into treatments for leukemia, which also struck his niece at age 5. She started college this fall.Rodriguez is running with Team in Training, the charity marathon team of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. His goal is to raise $3,000 for the group. "They've directly benefited me. Those drugs prolonged my life."In remission, Rodriguez took the drug alpha interferon for 10 years before switching to a new drug, Gleevec, about a year and half ago. The only side effect of the medicine is moderately painful muscle cramping, which he treats with calcium supplements.
He runs nearly every day."Another reason I try to stay in shape is that the only accepted cure of leukemia is a successful bone marrow transplant. I have sibling donors. But if one wishes to go through a bone marrow transplant at my age, you have to first pass some stringent heart and lung evaluations, so my running helps to keep me in shape and keep me eligible."I remind myself of that while I'm running."Rodriguez ran his first marathon in 1996. "I find my heart rate is within one or two beats of where it was nine years ago, and that's a result of continuing to run."Rodriguez's goal is a time of 4 hours, 20 minutes for the Jan. 15 race, which is also when he will turn 60. "I've survived to reach the age of 60, and I'll be helping to celebrate that."