AT THE TWIN CITIES MARATHON OLSON FINDS THE COURAGE
JARED SLINDE
Johanna Olson’s memory isn’t what it used to be. If her brain gets overstimulated in artificial light she finds herself suddenly exhausted and can’t remember the most recent of thoughts or words. There are times when she realizes an hour of her life has passed and struggles to recall its events.
They are all struggles that have come with a devastating and recurrent brain tumor. The 15-year battle has been taking its toll.
Her escape had always been running. The serenity she found in the thousands of miles she has run in a career that has included two Olympic Trials Marathon appearances and an NCAA Division III cross country title had become her safe haven.
So last year when she was met with the news of yet another overwhelming obstacle – this time a 12-month bout with chemotherapy – Olson needed a long-term reward to become her focus, and she turned to a familiar activity.
The 2012 Twin Cities Marathon was slated for October and Olson, a native of Wadena, Minn., and a resident of Bend, Ore., felt it would be the perfect goal to keep her mind occupied. The training would be rigorous and a complete 180-degree turn from her training years earlier as an elite athlete with a lifetime personal best of 2:43:27.
With an entire support system in place, Olson began the Twin Cities Marathon with the goal of “ralking,” a combination of walking and running, at 12-minutes per mile. It would take her around five hours to complete.
She reached her goals and satisfaction with her final time of 5:05:54.
“The 2012 Twin Cities Marathon was one of the most joyful, happy days of my life,” Olson said. “And I have had a lot of really
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great things that have happened. Five hours for a marathon: I never imagined I would be thrilled with that time unless I was over 70.”
But the time fails to tell the entire story of an incredible journey and an even stronger bond to the sport of running.
OLSON’S PATH TO THE TC MARATHON
Olson picked up the phone and called her mother in her hometown of Wadena, Minn.
“I knew I needed a goal,” Olson said. “I called and asked my mom if I could get an entry into the Twin Cities Marathon would she do it with me. Thinking it wouldn’t happen she said she would. I was able to get an entry and I called her back and she was like, ‘what?’ Then she said my Dad wanted to do it too.”
Preparing for the Twin Cities Marathon became her focal point and method to cope with the rigorous treatments she would have to overcome. And knowing everything she had been through, friends and family members came from everywhere to show their support. During the race she was surrounded by dozens of family and friends in a true testament that she was never in this battle alone.
Symptoms first began in 1997 when Olson, who was a freshman at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, began seeing spots and developed terrible migraines. Within a week she was diagnosed with grade II glioma and underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor with the news that the tumor would almost certainly reappear. Over the next 15 years Olson endured a constant struggle with the tumor that has included three brain surgeries and multiple treatments of chemotherapy and radiation. But the one constant the entire time was running.