Living on the Run : Not Even Two Bouts of Cancer Stop Hale From Doing What She Loves Most

In the last three years, Robin Hale’s life has teetered between tragedy and triumph. She has survived two bouts with cancer, most recently in June when she underwent a partial mastectomy.

Yet, despite the ordeal, she cherished last summer because she was able to continue running, her passion.

In Hale’s case, we’re not talking about an occasional jog around the park. Unless it happens to be Yellowstone National Park.

Hale, 43, is a long-distance runner who has put her 5-foot-5, 105-pound body through everything from marathons to a 62-mile race in the past year.

Her message to other cancer patients: Don’t give up on your dreams.

“[Cancer] can be so manageable,” Hale said. “I was pretty happy the whole time I was being treated for breast cancer. I was going through a horrible thing, but I did some incredible races and got running back again.”

Single and fiercely independent, Hale finds happiness as well as therapeutic benefits from running. She completed the Elkhorn 100K Endurance Run in Montana in July--a little more than a month after having breast surgery--covering the 62 miles in 16 hours. She followed that race by running the Castro Valley 50K in the Bay Area in August.

Hale was running an average of 95 miles a week in preparation for the Angeles Crest 100-mile Endurance Run in October, but she got lost on the course and was disqualified after missing a turn about 10 miles into the race.

“It was extremely disappointing,” she said.

With the year coming to a close, Hale has tapered her training regimen to 40 miles a week. She plans to increase her mileage again in January.

“Now I’m vegetating,” she said.

Hale enjoys running on outdoor trails, some near her Agoura home. She finds that being at peace with nature helps soothe some of the pain and discomfort that lingers from her battles with cancer.

In January of 1993, she was found to have a cancerous tumor in the soft tissue covering her right hip, resulting in radical surgery that included the removal or partial removal of several muscles. Skin and muscle from her stomach were transplanted to her right leg and hip.

Dr. James Luck, who performed the surgery, said Hale’s recovery and return to running is remarkable. He said 20 years ago patients with the same cancer would have had the afflicted limb amputated.

“She has achieved far more with her leg than I would expect from most individuals, even highly motivated athletic individuals,” said Luck, director of the Musculoskeletal Tumor Program at Orthopaedic Hospital. “From the beginning, it was obvious she was someone who was extremely determined to continue this level of activity.”

But it wasn’t easy.

Hale had to cope with months of debilitating chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Her walking was impaired after the surgery, and she said doctors discouraged her from running because of the threat of permanent damage to her hip.

Nonetheless, Hale started to run sporadically late in 1993 before stopping again midway through 1994.

“I had to give it up because it was too painful,” she said. “I tried different things to find another source of joy and meaning, but I couldn’t find any, no matter how hard I tried.

“I became more unhappy and more unhappy because I was an athlete. I was a runner and I didn’t feel like myself. . . . My health was getting worse and my walking was getting worse the longer I didn’t run.”

By Christmas 1994, Hale had decided she needed to start running again, even “if it meant breaking my hip down and getting a hip replacement.”

Taking advantage of a two-week holiday from her job as director of manufacturing at Rocketdyne in Canoga Park, Hale began running 12 miles a day on Christmas Eve.

“I started getting stronger each day I ran,” she said. “There’s no question that running got my life back in gear. Physically, my walking got a lot better--sleeping, eating, the way I felt, everything. I just kept running.”

Hale ran the Death Valley Marathon in February and the L.A. Marathon in March, finishing in 4 hours, 19 minutes. She followed those races by completing a pair of 50-milers, in April and May. Her success made her realize that she needed to run despite contrary advice from doctors, family and friends.

“When you have cancer, you lose touch with who you are and what you are because you’re this victim, this cancer patient,” she said. “Most people fall into a depression, and it’s hard to get out of because your life becomes a self-perpetuating thing of being a cancer patient and being treated.

“Everyone said I shouldn’t or couldn’t run, and I listened to them. I spent two very unhappy years because of it. What I learned when I started running again in ’94 is I can and I should [run] because I’m stronger when I do.”

Hale exhibited that strength when her breast cancer was detected. Instead of recoiling into an emotional shell, she was determined to deal with surgery and radiation treatments the best she could and continue running.

“My mental outlook was I was going to go down fighting this time,” she said.

Hale underwent two breast surgeries a week apart in June. The day after the first surgery, she went walking with the assistance of a friend. Two weeks after the second surgery, she helped pace a friend, Karen Kroljic, over the last 25 miles of the Western States 100-mile Endurance Run in Northern California.

Hale said one of the reasons she was able to begin running again so quickly after surgery was because the breast cancer did not spread to her lymph nodes, which would have necessitated chemotherapy and slowed her recovery.

“The day I found out it wasn’t in the lymph nodes, I lined up all the races I planned to run,” she said. “I decided to stay focused on racing.”

John Matrisciano, the Westlake Village surgeon who performed Hale’s partial mastectomy, said he encouraged Hale to resume running as long as she was cautious and wore a secure sports bra.

“I didn’t place a lot of restrictions on her because I knew running was part of her spirit and I wanted to keep that spirit working in her favor,” Matrisciano said. “I definitely attribute [running] to her recovering quickly.”

However, not everyone was as supportive of her decision to keep running so soon after surgery.

Said Hale: “Many people would say, ‘Robin, now that you have cancer again, why are you still running?’ And the answer I’d want to give is, ‘OK, fine, I’ll just crawl into a hole and give up.’ That’s the way people perceive that your response should be. That you should just crawl into a hole and give up your dreams.

“Yeah, a lot of people are afraid. My family is afraid and wishes I would have run less, but it’s my body and I know I feel better when I run.”

Hale, though, acknowledges that her runs don’t always go smoothly. Because of abnormalities in her right leg and hip, it’s difficult to keep her balance sometimes. And maintaining proper form is troublesome because her right knee turns inward.

“I fall a lot, that’s the No. 1 problem,” she said. “I’ve taken some big headers where I slide and roll and tumble. . . . My bones must be in good shape.”

Hale says keeping her body performing at its peak is a constant struggle, considering the everyday obstacles she faces.

“Life is just difficult because I have a hard time sleeping and feeling good because my leg and hip hurt a lot,” she said. “I have to stretch all the time and do physical therapy so I can keep my stride.

“They removed most of the gluteus muscles that support the hip and back, so I sink. I do a lot of strengthening to keep my [running] form because I’m anatomically different. I’m not normal.”

But no matter how many times she falls, Hale always manages to pick herself up. Staying active and maintaining a positive outlook is the key, she said.

At her weekly support group for breast cancer patients, Hale sees the toll depression can take on women who are inactive.

“I see women there who are saying, ‘When am I going to feel good again?’ And they finished their treatment six months ago,” Hale said. “I’m 100% positive I’m coping with this a lot better than anyone else I know because I don’t turn my life into this victim thing.”

Instead of treating her like a victim, Hale says many in the running community have made her feel like a celebrity, seeking her out at races.

“A lot of people can’t believe that I’ve done this,” she said. “In retrospect, it wasn’t that hard.

“It is hard. [Recently] I ran and fell down. But heck, running and falling and having fun is a lot better than sitting home and crying.”