By Meg Peters
Review Staff Writer
Whether for personal resolutions or for other causes, a total of 207 athletes made it their goal New Year’s Day to get up and run.
The 15th’annual New Year’s Resolution Run brought competitors of all sorts to the Village streets for the start of 2015 as runners sped through a 5k race and walkers powered through a 1.5 mile course around downtown Lake Orion.?
Orchestrating the race was the Lake Orion Downtown Development Authority, local businesses and Stan Ford, the Lake Orion High School track and cross country coach, who has set the resolution course for the past 15 years.
From Flint and Broadway, around the Bunny Run subdivision and down Washington St., runners did what they do best: wore elaborate patriotic outfits and ran in the name of freedom.
Through the herd, one pack of runners stood out from the rest. Led by Lake Orion native Brian Thomas, the Road Warriors ran for a special cause, a two-year-old girl from Oxford named Emma Thompson who has been diagnosed with brain cancer. Despite the aggressive treatment she has received, including removing a brain tumor, Emma continues to smile and will undergo proton radiation therapy when she is three.
Thomas is like Emma in many ways.
He is well known in these parts for his battle, including a trans-state 50-day run from Florida to Michigan in 2002.
At the time Thomas was running to raise awareness and funds for a friend with colon cancer, but then six months later doctors told him he had six months to live.??
Like Emma, Thomas is battling cancer. While running exuberant and motivational races to raise awareness for everyone in his shoes he is undergoing intensive and experimental treatment for stage four melanoma cancer.
And he is still living and breathing, probably 50 times harder than most people, on 10 mile, 50 mile, 100 mile, and 1,000+ mile runs.
Nothing is slowing him down.
‘I would say that my life experiences, which include running, have allowed me the ability to navigate cancer’s very dynamic and timely waters successfully,? he said. ‘Running keeps me motivated, but more so that I’m inspiring and motivating people to come together and help others. That’s what really motivates me.?
It was the Lake Orion community this past New Year’s that came together once again for his cause.
Thomas along with two other friends Brandon Mercado and Ramiro Melendez created the nonprofit organization the Road Warriors Corporation to raise awareness and funds in local communities for cancer patients.
And the connection begins.
The Road Warriors partnered with 51 North Brewery and the DDA to host a special after-run party in the name of Emma for athletes at the downtown brewery.
After the race and at the end of the day the Road Warriors raised $18,000 for Emma’s family to help pay off existing and future medical bills.
Thomas said it is the local communities who keep the nonprofit running.
‘I’m going to go through some hell, and maybe come out and maybe not, but she was diagnosed at 13 months. We have to get her to where she can go out and see things, do things and be amazing, and know that every day average Joe-superheroes have her back.?
Emma of Oxford is not the only beneficiary of the Road Warriors, who are trying to spark awareness all along the east coast and someday the entire country.
Each race the Road Warriors compete in raises funds for five other beneficiaries and the Warriors are always looking.
To donate to his cause, visit the Road Warrior’s website at’www.roadwarriorscorp.org/.
Although Thomas lives in Florida now with his wife and young daughter, his schedule this summer will take him all the way up to Mackinac Island.??
In June the Road Warriors will begin their Heart and Soul Adventure race, which will take them first from the West Palm Beach area to Washington D.C. A second race will take them all the way from Florida to Mackinac Island, with a brief pit-stop in Lake Orion for a benefit party.
After running 1,100 miles to D.C. Thomas? driving crew will literally pick him up on’July 26’and drive him to Lake Orion for the benefit dinner at the Lake Orion Buffalo Wild Wings, the restaurant which hosted the first benefit dinner when Thomas was diagnosed.
It is all full-circle.
‘I’m really quick to get my hometown involved because we know people will always be suffering from cancer and we always need the community’s help’because that’s what works out the best’to help the individuals that need it,? he said.?
‘I just want everyone to know the Road Warriors will be there for them. To know my daughter is watching me is the most important thing. She believes in heroes because her daddy is one.?
Like Thomas, we can all be heroes.
‘Obviously there’s our military abroad, but the guys and girls that do things back home, things for the greater purposes of their community–they look like me,? he said.
‘We don’t wear capes, but we do wear spandex.?