Lisa Chambers and her husband, Dominic, celebrated her late mother, Sue Sari, by running the marathon and half marathon in Sue’s honor. Photo by Chloe Montague
Along the home stretch of the Eugene Marathon on Sunday, one group of voices rang clear above the roar of the Hayward Field crowd: “Strong like Sue! Strong like Sue!” The group, several rows deep and sporting matching grey “Strong like Sue” T-shirts, chanted as one of their marathoners, Lisa Chambers, raced by.
The chant was contagious. Leading it were Lisa’s siblings, Maria Bassier, Andrea Felton and Paul Sari. Andrea and Paul had just finished the half marathon; now they were cheering on their younger sister.
They were all in Eugene to honor their mom, Sue Sari, who passed away from a brain tumor last March.
After the race, Lisa looked at her arm, where she had written the names of 10 people in her life who have also been affected by brain tumors.
“You really can’t control all the things that happen in your life, but you can do something about them,” said Lisa. “And what I can do is run.”
So that’s exactly what she did. She finished the marathon in 3:35:49 – and, with her group, raised $10,000 for brain tumor research along the way.
All told, the group included six marathoners, 15 half-marathoners and even more non-runners cheering them on. They’ve been planning for this race since August, when Lisa decided she wanted to run a marathon to memorialize her mom and to raise money for research into brain tumors, which she described as a “hopeless diagnosis.”
The race setting is fitting: Growing up, their mom drove them to all their sports practices and was always at their games.
“Mom would have been our number one cheerer for sure,” said Andrea.
During the four months their mom was sick, the siblings rotated through caretaking. Those memories pushed them through the race.
“I got to a part in the race where I feel like it’s hard, and I think about when my mom wasn’t walking well in her last couple months,” said Andrea, who ran the half-marathon. “We would walk with her down the hallway, and we would support her with a gate belt. That push down the hallway was harder than anything I’m doing now.”
And for Lisa, running became a release while her mom was sick.
“It was partly a coping thing, but also a good way to have time for myself and think about things,” she said.
Sue’s grandchildren were too young to run, but not to encourage the runners. Photo by Chloe Montague
The group’s cheering crew included eight grandchildren, who cheered the runners on with handmade signs.
“I think it’s important for the kids to see some of that, like we can continue to do things, and of course we don’t want them to forget her,” said Lisa.
And then there was the finish. This year’s Eugene Marathon is the first in three years that has finished on the Hayward Field track – and you could feel the energy.
“Best finish you could ever imagine,” said half-marathoner Dominic Chambers, Lisa’s husband.
“My mantra since my mom passed away is, life is really short,” said Paul, Sue’s son. “It can come at you really fast, and you need to enjoy it. You need to celebrate with people you love.”
