Julie Mizraji is taking her battle to the streets.
The Massachusetts streets that make up the 26.2-mile course of the 126th Boston Marathon, that is.
Mizraji, a Waltham resident, is Brandeis's Coordinator of Intramural Sports, a position she has held for the past seven years. Shortly after joining the Brandeis staff in 2014, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. In 2019, after her initial diagnosis had gone into remission, the cancer came back and had spread to her lungs. In 2022, she has Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer.
One of Julie's best therapies to help combat the cancer has been maintaining a healthy lifestyle. After learning her cancer had returned, she took up running. She fell in love with the activity so much, she vowed to run a half-marathon on her 30th birthday, which she did successfully in 2020.
"My active lifestyle helps me stay healthy and feeling good," Julie said. "They call me a unicorn, because the medication I'm taking [an oral chemotherapy], a lot of people feel really bad a lot of the time. For me, only one or two days a month are like that."
Running a marathon is something that Julie has always thought about, but she wasn't sure. The half-marathon was one thing, but doing it twice? But her inspiration struck last October, when the COVID-postponed 2021 Boston Marathon was run.
"Someone in my metastatic breast cancer group ran Boston in the fall, and she really inspired me," Julie said. "There are a lot of people from Dana Farber who are in treatment for a variety of cancers that run. We can still push ourselves."
Watching her friend and discussing the opportunity with the department's marathon expert Kat Page, Julie thought now was the time. She applied to be on the marathon team for the Dana Farber Cancer Center. She got a spot, and the rest is history.
"I knew if I was going to run a marathon, it would have to be Boston, and it would have to be to support Dana Farber," Julie said. "The motivation to raise money for cancer research was there. It's in my hometown, I know where to run to train, I have Kat as my running partner. And ultimately, if you're going to run a marathon, Boston is the one to do."
Julie has been running consistently since her half-marathon a couple of years ago, but nothing that approaches training for a full marathon. As a meticulous planner, she put together a training regimen along with Page that would prepare her for the full 26.2-mile experience: three runs a week, two short and one long one that kept increasing as the marathon approached, at least until it was time to taper off over the last few weeks.
"It helps me to see it on paper!" Julie said.
Julie doesn't know if this will be a one-time event or if she's truly caught the marathon bug. The half-marathon she ran a couple of years ago seems better to scratch her distance running itch. "On those long training runs, in my head I'm telling myself, 'You are not doing this again!' But after the run, you feel amazing. Who knows how I will feel after Boston?"
Julie's friends will be watching in towns from Ashland to Wellesley to Brighton. Her family is coming to town from California to encourage her along the route and at the finish line.
"To actually be on this historic course, running it," Julie said. "I feel so lucky to be getting the opportunity."
To follow Julie's progress in the 2022 Boston Marathon, plug Bib #24073 into the Boston Marathon app. If you're on the course, she'll be wearing a light-blue Dana Farber Marathon Team singlet with her name in pink and a neon yellow shirt underneath.
To make a donation to support Julie's fundraising efforts on behalf of Dana Farber, visit http://danafarber.jimmyfund.org/goto/juliemizraji.
UPDATE: Julie finished the 126th Boston Marathon in 4:42.06, close to her target time of 4:30. "It was hard," she said. "It was amazing, it was unexpected, it was life-changing."
