It was late spring, during Emily Ward's sophomore year at Santa Fe Secondary School, when she found out her 10-month-old sister had leukemia. She decided to do something about it. Four months later, on Oct. 19, Emily found herself in San Francisco completing the 26.2-mile Nike Women's Marathon to benefit The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Emily had never competed in a race before, but she completed it in a little over six hours. Twenty thousand runners competed in the marathon, the winner finished in a little over three hours.

She says her mom inspired her to run.

"My mom started exercising two years ago," she said. "When my little sister got leukemia, I thought I could exercise with her to help her out."

Emily began training in June with Team In Training, a marathon training program. Initially, she planned on walking the marathon, but after starting to run four miles every weekend and adding on a mile each week, she was ready to run. Team In Training provided her with a Web site (www.teamintraining.org) to help raise money and help with her training. In those four months, she raised $8,698. Out of this money, 25 percent went to pay for her airfare, hotel and entry fee; the rest went to patient research and the cause. Emily said her little sister is "doing much better."

When asked what she was going to do now that the marathon is over, she said, "I want to run another one."



Leigh Mahlum is a junior at Santa Fe High School. You can reach her at Leighmah lum@aol.com.