Sonya Evans doesn't expect to break any records on Saturday when she runs the 15-mile course of the Charleston Distance Run.
The 45-year-old resident of West Union, Ohio, just wants to finish the race.
"It's probably gonna be somewhere in the area of four hours," Evans said. "Because when I run my training run ... I did 15 [miles] a couple weeks ago and it took me about 3:45 and that was without hills."
But odds are, Evans will make a better time than the last time she ran the CDR - three years ago when she was suffering from, but not yet diagnosed with, lung cancer. "That is when I knew I had something wrong with me," Evans said of the 2012 race. "I about didn't finish the race."
Evans first got into running around 10 years ago. She ran her first 5K in Charleston and decided to return to do the CDR in 2011 as her first longer-distance race. She had been to the city before to visit her brother, Scott Fields.
"I liked the city of Charleston pretty well. It's a beautiful city," Evans said. "I always enjoy my time there."
Her time during that first Distance Run was "respectable," she said, so she decided to run it again the next year with some friends.
That year's CDR, did not go as well, though.
"I got really sick after [the race]," Evans said. "I actually had my brother pull over ... I went back to his place and shrugged it off."
She also ran the 15 miles much slower - 20 or 30 minutes longer - than she had done the previous year. That surprised her, considering the temperatures were hotter the year before.
She had experienced some breathing problems while she trained for the race. She had seen doctors, who treated her for perceived allergy and sinus problems. She even had a chest X-ray, but seemingly nothing showed up. Doctors told her she had mild chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, she said.
It wasn't until the following January - four months after the CDR - that doctors finally discovered the two tumors on her right lung. She was officially diagnosed with stage 3 non-small cell lung cancer on Jan. 10, 2013, the day she turned 43. One doctor told her she had one or two years to live.
Evans went through chemotherapy and radiation. A tube inserted into her lung drained fluid everyday.
She finished up treatments in August of that year, but never thought she would run again.
"I was pretty sick," she said. "I had trouble walking to my bathroom."
But by that December, doctors gave her permission to do as much physical activity as her body would allow. So she started walking and eventually running again, much to her delight.
"I really enjoy exercise," she said. "It makes me feel so much better."
Not only has Evans had to deal with cancer treatments, she's also grieving the sudden loss of her longtime boyfriend. In July 2014, Danny Rymer was mowing grass - something she said he enjoyed doing - when he suddenly collapsed. Despite having no apparent cardiac problems beforehand, he had suffered a heart attack. Rymer had been her "rock" through her cancer bout, she said. He had nursed her back to health.
"It was a horrible experience," Evans said. "I know I'd rather have cancer any day of the week than go through grief."
Her brother Fields, a Charleston psychologist, said her running again was the furthest thing from his mind. But, knowing his sister, he knew not to put anything past her.
"She pretty much does what she wants, what she puts her mind to," he said.
After she started to run again, Fields jokingly suggested she run the Flying Pig half marathon in Cincinnati. So she actually did it.
"She's always had a real good ability to see the positive," he said. "So yeah, you really can't keep her down too long."
At Fields' nomination, Evans will be this year's recipient of the Steve Prefontaine Most Courageous Runner Award, named after a famous runner who spoke at the Distance Run's runners clinic in 1974, months before he was killed in a car accident.
There were nine nominations for this year's award and all of them had inspiring stories, Joni Adams, a member of the race's committee, said.
"It was very difficult to even narrow it down," she said, adding that the committee took a vote on the award and chose Evans. Typically the committee members make nominations, but this year officials used social media as a way to solicit nominations, she said.
Evans will be presented her award at Friday evening's pasta dinner for runners.
She still has two tumors on her lung, but her cancer is in remission. She plans to do her first full marathon in Columbus next month.
Fields, two years younger than his sister, has been a runner since his cross country days in high school. This year will be his 11th Charleston Distance Run in the past 12 years.
Fields and Evans will start the race together, but Fields is faster, and he expects to wait on his sister at the finish line with his family.
"They will probably - and rightfully so - be cheering louder for her," Fields said.
Reach Lori Kersey at lori.kersey@wvgazette.com, 304-348-1240 or follow @lorikerseywv on Twitter.