Racing for a Reason
Thousands of people are preparing for the annual Miles for Moffitt race. Runner Marco Echeverry has been raising money for cancer research for over a decade.
Echeverry is running in the Miles for Moffitt race to remember his aunt who passed from cancer. “When you see someone on their last breath,” said runner, Echeverry, “and you know they’re like only 42, and you’re in your 20’s, you’re like, that’s young, man.”
Echeverry’s aunt died 11 years ago from Lymphoma, and he has run every year since then in hopes that other people won’t have to go through losing someone that they love.
“We’ve got a little slogan – ‘Run for something’,” said Echeverry. “You know, everyone runs, but we do races that are actually going to make an impact, and run for something that has purpose or meaning behind it.”
He has gathered a group of runners who will participate in Miles for Moffitt this year.
“So we’ll have the whole team together,” said Echeverry, “with everyone kind of motivating each other, and reflecting on what they are going through or what they’ve gone through. And who they’re running for.”
Last year, runners raised more than $1.1 million. That money is invested into finding cures and improving treatment for people like Marco Echeverry’s aunt.
“This is one way, in a small way, to make a little difference to somebody – to somebody’s life,” said Echeverry. “To hopefully finding a cure. To hopefully finding a better type of treatment that can make the percentage of someone actually living a little higher.”
The Miles for Moffitt race starts outside of Amalie Arena tomorrow morning.
