By ADAM FERRISE

Special to The Gazette

Steve Marshall lined up for the start of the race ready to escape the worries life has thrown at him and to remind him how strong he has become.

Flanked by his daughter Emma and son Ian, Marshall readied to run in the five-kilometer Fun Run at the 33rd annual YWCA Twin Sizzler on July 4.

Marshall, sporting a Livestrong running shirt, competed in the competitive portion of the Twin Sizzler on a number of occasions, but this time he ran with his children.

As the three crossed the finish line, with 6-year-old Ian in the lead, the trio made their way over to their mother and wife, Lisa, who was waiting near the tape, snapping pictures and listening to Ian boast about beating his father.

To say running is important to the Marshall family would be like saying politics are important to the Clintons.

Almost two years ago, however, it wasn’t certain that Steve, 43, of Seville, would ever run again.

In October 2006, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a shock to any family, but especially to the Marshall clan because Steve was always in good health and was a dedicated runner.

To that point in 2006, he was in the Cleveland Road Race Series and had accumulated the second highest point total for his age group.

“We’ve been together for 20 some years — we met in college — and he was the healthiest person I’d ever known,” Lisa Marshall said. “He never got colds, nothing.”

About two months before his diagnosis, Steve noticed his race times were not what they usually were despite his aggressive training.

When the family was vacationing in Myrtle Beach, he went for a run and felt exhausted well before he felt he should have. Shortly after the vacation, Steve actually had to stop running on one of his morning jaunts and walked back to his house.

“That was the first indication,” he said.

During the 10-kilometer run at the Twin Sizzler that year, his times were so low he began wondering why he was slowing down.

“The time was bad for me,” he said. “I was very tired and didn’t finish strong or anything like that. Even by late June early July, I didn’t feel it overall, but I knew my running times weren’t there.”

In late August, he felt pain in his side and went to the emergency room, where doctors originally thought his appendix had burst, but only found mild swelling.

Doctors thought his symptoms could be that of Crohn’s Disease, an intestinal disorder, and he scheduled a colonoscopy and stopped running.

Before he ever made it to the appointment, however, Marshall was back in the ER. He suffered from pain and vomiting and had the colonoscopy there, but nothing was found.

He was sent to University Hospitals in Cleveland, where he was diagnosed with Stage 2 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Steve had cancer in his abdomen and the lymph nodes in the surrounding area also had cancer.

“It was very upsetting,” he said. “I was planning on doing a run in a couple of weeks and I was training.”

Steve had his first chemotherapy session on Oct. 6. He spent all day getting chemotherapy once every three weeks for 18 months.

He lost all his hair, his weight dropped considerably and he was exhausted most of the time. Not physically large at 5-foot-7, his weight dropped to 130 pounds.

Steve missed Thanksgiving that year, while Lisa took the kids. A few days later, he was feeling better and even hung the Christmas lights on the house. Afterward, though, he felt pains in his side.

He called his father-in-law, Rich Allen, to take him to the hospital, but before he arrived, partially due to being pulled over for speeding, Steve collapsed. They tried to contact Lisa, but she was teaching her English night class at the University of Akron’s Wayne College branch.

Emma, who was 5 at the time, ran to their neighbor, Ken Marchinko, a fireman, to get help.

Steve had to get an emergency colostomy where his colon was affected by the cancer.

“I was teaching a night class and I was gone,” Lisa said. “When I got home, there were cop cars in the driveway.”

After the surgery, Steve took four months sick leave from the Department of Veteran Affairs, where he works as a research scientist, while Lisa kept teaching.

“That was kind of good because it was the only place I felt normal,” Lisa said. “When I was in the classrooms it was sort of a mental break. I prayed a lot. The bible got me through it. Romance novels and sleeping pills got me through it. You kind of go on autopilot and you do everything.”

During the 18 months in chemotherapy, the financial burden was lightened in a number of ways.

“People who don’t have good health insurance and don’t have a job with benefits, I don’t know how they make it,” Lisa said. “We took a financial hit as it was, but nothing like what it could have been.”

They also received help from various organizations they found through the Lance Armstrong Foundation.

The Creston United Methodist Church, where Lisa attended growing up, held a dinner in Steve’s honor that raised about $3,200. Northside Christian Church in Wadsworth also collected donations and provided dinners to the family three or four times a week.

They also mentioned the support they received from Emma and Ian’s teachers that year, when Emma was at Lincoln Elementary and Ian was in pre-kindergarten at Northside.

Through it all, Steve was motivated to get back to running. After reading Lance Armstrong’s biography, which Lisa gave to him as a Christmas present, Steve decided his goal was to come back stronger than ever.

“A goal and something to look forward to afterwards was important,” Steve said. “I wanted to get back to being physically fit. Having something to look forward to was really helpful.”

He was declared cancer free in February. By April he was running again.

“The surgeon and doctors said, especially on the surgery, that it could have been much worse if I wasn’t already in good shape,” Steve said. “I wasn’t obese and didn’t have any other conditions.”

His first race a month later at St. Francis Xavier was emotional, at least for his family.

Lisa, Emma and Ian knelt down before the start of the race to pray.

When Steve made it to the finish line, it was a symbol the Marshalls had overcome everything that had been thrown their way the previous year and a half.

“My time wasn’t great,” Steve said. “I was just glad to finish. I don’t even remember my time but it was really nice because I felt like, you know, the chapter was closed on the cancer.”

Added Lisa: “I didn’t really emotionally process a lot of it until after it was over. That race was really emotional for me, and I think it was because you kind of bottle everything up. When it’s so bad, you can’t deal with it. You kind of wait until it’s over.”

After that race, Steve began rebuilding his strength. Later that year he finished a 10k in 19:30 at a race in Seville to set a personal best.

“His times are so good that we don’t have to worry about it anymore,” Lisa said. “He has a scan every six months just to make sure. They’ve pretty much given him a clean bill of health.”

Steve said he changed his diet to eat healthier, cutting out fatty foods, and now feels better than he did before the cancer.

“One thing, afterwards we joke about, is using Lance Armstrong’s story because that was one organization that helped us,” Steve said. “I’ve been Lance-ified in that I feel better and healthier than before I had cancer.

“Now running in the marathons is a marker of how strong and healthy I feel.”

Ferrise may be reached at sports@ohio.net.