Mike (64) and daughter Alexa (34) have embarked on a journey since 2009 of full marathon running that started as a fundraiser for Blood Cancer United in honor of Alexa's grandfather and Mike's father, Poppy. Alexa was just 16 when she decided to run a half-marathon and raise money for Poppy. She raised $1,500, and then her father was inspired. They then continued their efforts to raise money and do the Disney Marathon as a full marathon together in 2009. From there, they would raise money that now went to Poppy's memory for Blood Cancer United research and community.
Since then, Alexa and her parents have raised over $200,000 towards blood cancer research and treatments in Poppy's memory. Their team, which grew from eight people in 2014 for the Disney Marathon, has grown four times in size, and now strangers run with the Pops Warriors Team and have collectively raised over $1 million at the Walt Disney World Marathon, even yearly! All proceeds go to grants for researching children's blood cancer awareness.
They decided to complete a marathon in all 50 states (which took them 12 years to do, with COVID, surgeries, and pregnancies not slowing them down). Running about 10 to 16 marathons, a year kept them on track, and they even completed a seven-marathon, seven-day, seven-states challenge.
Once finished with the 50 states in June 2024, they decided that finishing at 74 marathons was not ideal. They decided to complete a full 100 marathons as their goal. They are now at marathon 99 and will complete marathon 100 together in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
Together they will complete something that started out as something so small, to a feat that they thought was not achievable. Before each race, Alexa reminds her father, "One day we won't be able to do this, but that day is NOT TODAY."
Alexa
volunteer
