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Running Better Than Ever

Shannon Dexter is a mother, a wife and a sister. She is also a cancer survivor. And as of this week, she has a new title: coach for Better Than Ever, a fitness and fund-raising program for the Arizona Cancer Center. "I'm really excited about being a coach and felt very honored to be asked," Shannon said. "I'm excited to be able to support people in their journey to blast apart their beliefs about their limitations and to help people just be their best selves." Shannon, along with her husband, Skip Dexter, has joined the force of 21 coaches helping walkers and runners to prepare for the Cinco de Mayo 10K event on May 2. Shannon, 43, and Skip, 55, are not longtime runners. Shannon has always been active, enjoying activities such as horseback riding and kayaking, while Skip is a hiker and bicyclist. But in a quest for improved fitness, Shannon decided a group fitness program with a specific goal would offer an extra incentive. Better Than Ever, which also offers walking and running training regimes for the Tucson Marathon and the Bobbi Olson Half Marathon, provided the ideal opportunity. The couple began training last August - Shannon with group training and Skip, whose schedule was less flexible, with the solo plan - and they completed their first half-marathon in December. Shannon's performance far exceeded her expectations. Though she had originally planned to walk the half-marathon, halfway through the program she began retraining as a jogger. The shorter stride relieved stress on her hips, and she was able to run the race, a feat she said she could not have imagined several months earlier. "It blew away the limitations I had in my mind about what I was able to do with my body now and how fit I was ever going to be able to be. The whole thing on so many levels was amazing," said Shannon, who was first diagnosed with endometrial cancer eight years ago. She suffered a recurrence in 1998 and was treated at the Arizona Cancer Center. Numerous surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation were traumatic to her body, which still suffers from aftereffects of the treatments. But Shannon is now cancer-free and determined to help cancer survivors and the general public to optimize their health. "Being able to give back to the Arizona Cancer Center is powerfully important after all they did for me, and being able to help people gain a new level of fitness and discover that internal energy source we find when we get active is just really meaningful," Shannon said. "I think having purpose and meaning in life is like food and water. We need it as much as we need air." Those sentiments are shared by Heather Alberts, who founded Better Than Ever in 2000 to promote awareness of fitness as a primary factor in reduction of cancer risk. Her husband, Dr. Dave Alberts, is the director of cancer prevention at the Arizona Cancer Center. He helped her to recruit faculty and staff members to start the program. "I thought we could coach folks in the field of cancer prevention research to walk the talk of cancer prevention, and we created the pilot with 45 unlikely people who trained for three months and completed the half-marathon and raised $25,000," Heather Alberts said. Bobbi Olson, the now-deceased wife of UA basketball coach Lute Olson, brought attention to the program the following year, drawing 550 participants and raising $283,000 for the Bobbi Olson Ovarian Cancer Fund. To date, Better Than Ever has raised $750,000 for the Arizona Cancer Center. "It has grown so much out of joy - the joy of seeing people who couldn't imagine doing something like this, and they can do it," said Alberts, who also credits the program's success to coordinator Joyce Stavro and the volunteer coaches "who are so dedicated and care so much about the people they train." Skip said program participants, who range in age from 20 to 80, are a great incentive for his volunteer efforts and that he hopes that the 10K (6.2 miles) will attract people who might initially be intimidated by longer races. "The most fun part for me is meeting people," Skip said. "The friendships and the interactions with others are exhilarating. And the day of the races, it is just incredible." Skip said.