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Emily Levine had stage IV lung cancer. But instead of fearing the inevitable, she decided to embrace her new reality, and face death with humor and gratitude.
In her own words: “I love being in sync with the cyclical rhythms of the universe. That’s what’s so extraordinary about life — it’s a cycle of generation, degeneration, regeneration. ’I’ am just a collection of particles that is arranged into this pattern, then will decompose and be available, all of its constituent parts, to nature, to reorganize into another pattern. To me, that is so exciting, and it makes me even more grateful to be part of that process.”
She died on February, 3 2019. Please watch this clip from her TED talk a few months before her death.
I am happy to report that I successfully completed the Breast Cancer Virtual Half Marathon. Here is a record of the day:
I had the feeling it was going to be an exciting day ahead when I woke up at 5 am on the cold February morning, just a couple of days after the snow blizzard had hit New York and New Jersey. The Galloway NYC group was scheduled to assemble at around 7 am at Central Park, NY. The cold seeped into me when I stepped out of my home—the temperature was around 20 F (minus 6 Celsius) and I also had to make allowances for the erratic weekend train schedules.
I reached Central Park a little before 7 am and joined other fellow half and full marathoners. The race started immediately thereafter and the first thing that I noticed when I hit the route was that the snow melts from the previous day had now become slippery black ice and there were still several patches of uncleared snow on the route. It was not going to be an easy run but I was determined to finish the race safely without any slips or falls.
The route took us through West Side Manhattan where we had to stop for traffic and watch out for slippery spots on the pavement. I was wearing my waterbelt but the water was by now icy cold. I kept sipping nevertheless to avoid dehydration. Midway during the run, the water had frozen, something I realized a little too late when my mouth filled with chunks of ice when I tried to drink the water. My immediate impulse was to spit it out but I swallowed nevertheless, not wanting to do it in public.
I slipped on the ice a couple of times en route, but luckily regained my balance. We finished again at Central Park, and were cheered by the Asst. Director of Team Galloway who took our pictures and video and handed around pretty little pink medals: pink for breast cancer awareness. I am happy I finished the race safe and injury free, rather than take risks by focusing on the time. Am glad I ran for a good cause and did my mite for breast cancer cure and care.
I am running the above race tomorrow morning at New York City. This annual race actually takes place at Florida. Interestingly (and fortunately) for people like me, the organizers have provided the option for runners interested in this cause to be able to run in their own neighborhood, or anywhere they choose. The virtual full and half marathon results will be added to the existing full and half marathon events taking place in Jacksonville Beach, Florida on February 21, 2010. Thousands of runners and fans are expected to gather there this year and 100% of the entry fee would be donated to breast cancer research at Mayo Clinic and Care for Women with Breast Cancer.
How does a Virtual Race Work?
I am joining MSKCC on Mon July 21 ’08 at their Epidemiology and Bio-Statistics department on Upper East Side in Manhattan, NY – close to Central Park. I will be working on Computational Biology and will be managing HP-UX, Tru64 and Linux Cluster servers, Oracle, Tomcat, Apache and varied Bio-Statistics applications. Needless to say, I am enthusiastic and look forward to my tenure there.
Wish me luck in my new profession. Thank you ! ♥
Nomad Muse 