Ji Rong's story of 2020
Rong Ji It was September 13 th , 2020 Sunday, three days before my prophylaxis double mastectomy. My husband drove me to the train station to center city Philadelphia. I will run my last virtual race of this year, the Broad Street Run 10 mile. I started from South of Kelly Drive to North direction. As usual, my mind ran wild on my running journey. Late last year, I registered for all my targeted local 2020 races: Love Run in March, Broad Street Run in May, and Philadelphia Marathon in November. In February, I met with my surgeon to plan for the operation. I have family history of breast cancer and found out I carry the BRCA 2 gene which is a mutation that increases the risk of breast cancer 80% at older age. With no hesitation, I decided to bypass all the frequent screenings and go straight to double mastectomy. My surgeon told me I have to take 3 weeks off from work for recovery. I told him I have two races in March and May. He said: enjoy the run, let’s do the surgery after ...