Kelley Pike
On May 16, Kelley Pike ran 5 kilometers for the first time in her life.
“I tried not to cry when I finished that,” Pike, who has participated in the Healthy For Good 5K Training that is part of the 2019 Capital Region Heart Walk and Run, said.
When Pike started the training program in March, she was having trouble getting out of bed. Pike had faced a lot of obstacles. Ten years ago, when she was 35, she had had breast cancer, requiring a mastectomy and reconstruction.
In May of 2018, she was diagnosed with uterine cancer and had surgery on June 6. Last September, an ear infection developed into mastoiditis, which led to a blood clot in her head. She had a PIC line that was taken out before Thanksgiving.
A few weeks after starting the Healthy For Good 5K Training Program, a scan showed that everything was ok in Pike’s brain.
Pike, who handles grants and contracts at Albany Med’s research office, had tried to do a “Couch to 5K” on her own in the past.
“I’d go too fast and get discouraged when I did it on my own,” Pike said. “The group was so supportive, and the mentors in the training program were so great. They would tell me to do what I had to do. If I couldn’t talk, they’d say I was going too fast, and to slow it down. I had been in a bad place, and knew I had to do something. This program let me walk the walk, and now I can’t wait to run the 5K on June 2.”