Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Cancer patient
bravely decides
to live every
moment to fullest

Richard Lem's latest success was
finishing the Great Aloha Run, and
next up is the Los Angeles Marathon

By Mary Adamski
Star-Bulletin

Richard Lem's time in the Great Aloha Run was a minute short of two hours.

That's many minutes short of his best record from past years.

But yesterday's outcome didn't disappoint him and the reason can be found in the title of his book: "I'm Dying But I'm Not Sick: The Final Journey."

"Running kind of frees my mind," said Lem, 66, a retired high school counselor. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in November 1998. It has spread to his spine, ribs and shoulders and most recently, to his pancreas. "It's too late for chemotherapy" but he is receiving treatment at University of Southern California Norris Cancer Center, injections of lupron attempting to stop the spread of cancer cells.

"Running becomes almost like a religion ... a form of meditation for me," said Lem, who ran hurdles in high school and returned to jogging more than 30 years ago. Lem headed home today to continue training for the March 5 Los Angeles Marathon. He has completed all 14 of the city's previous marathons and that's only part of the reason he was asked to participate tomorrow in a pre-race media event.

"I don't let it (cancer) rule my life," said Lem, whose cheering squad here included his wife of 44 years, Patricia, and his cousin, Liholiho Elementary School Principal Christina Small.

"You can either wait to die or get on with your life. I prefer to do what I like to do. This way you have control over your life.'

He combines his continuing training as a runner with Xiang Gong, a Chinese practice of exercise and meditation. He uses Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture "to boost my muscles" which are weakened by the medical treatment.

Xiang Gong "is designed to harness the chi, the energy that is around us. Along with the running, it balances the physical and the spiritual.

"I'm not a Buddhist, but I understand its Four Noble Truths. Birth, life, aging, dying, we all go through those stages. We are continuing to learn through our last breath. If you accept death as the natural thing ... when you close your eyes, you lift yourself out of your body. Death is probably the easier part; birth is probably the most traumatic.

"The physical, astral, mental and spiritual are all parts of us. Most of us are never balanced. We become one or the other.

"I balance myself through the running and the meditation. When you balance yourself, you quiet your mind."

Lem said he spent 20 minutes before the run yesterday doing exercise and meditation.

"My mind was at ease. The body came through all right for me. How many more times, I don't know. I feel pretty good."