Hilliard man with Stage 4 cancer running first Columbus Marathon

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – When 13,000 runners take to the Nationwide Children's Hospital Columbus Marathon and Half-Marathon course, there may be no runner more inspiring than Mike Ray. This year, he is among the marathon's Lashutka Spirit Award winners, given to individuals that inspire others to overcome obstacles and challenges.

"I am very fortunate,” Ray said. “Stage 4 cancer, colon cancer, after 4 years doesn't look like me. People aren't doing what I'm doing.”

To know Ray is to know a man determined to keep fighting. In 2020, he was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer. He has had somewhere between 24 to 30 tumors since and endured numerous rounds of chemotherapy and radiation. And yet, he keeps running.

"Especially with everything going on, running is my normal," Ray said. "Even on my worst days of treatment, and when I've had to run-walk and build myself back up, rebuilding numerous times, running is the one thing that makes me feel like me again. It makes me feel normal."

He began his running journey 10 years ago, helping him lose 100 pounds. And now, with cancer in his body, he stays active. He rides in Pelotonia, participated in the Sandusky Half-Ironman and the C2C Relay Race for the American Cancer Society, with his chemo purse in tow.

"They're like, nobody else does this. I was like, I thought everyone did this. I thought this was normal. But they're like, no," Ray said. "Even my oncologist like, when I get hurt or something, his response is ‘well, maybe you should stop working out.’ I'm like the only cancer patient, they're like ‘stop working out.’"

But he doesn't know how to stop. And so, despite taking on his latest round of radiation just three weeks before running his first ever marathon. And he has one simple goal: keep moving.

"It was that kind of mentality, pulled into the fighting and the diagnosis with cancer," Ray said. "I'm not going to stop. I'm not going to back off. I need to just keep going. Six and a half hours is the cutoff for the marathon. So six hours and 29 minutes is my goal."

Ray's cancer is inoperable and he will need a full liver transplant to fully rid himself of the disease. He's working with the Cleveland Clinic to get ready for that and is hopeful he could be on the donor list in as soon as six months. In the meantime, all of his focus is on Sunday's race, and pushing his body and mind once more.