13 WTHR - Indianapolis News |State trooper plans run to benefit cancer patients

State trooper plans run to benefit cancer patients

Emily Longnecker/Eyewitness News

Crawfordsville - An Indiana State Trooper is lacing up his running shoes for a good cause this weekend.

Indiana State Trooper Joel Flores knows what its like to go the distance and he knows the pain that comes with running a marathon of 26.2 miles.

"It takes some kind of mental toughness to get through it," says Trooper Flores.

Flores should know, he's done it in three different marathons.

"Your mind plays tricks on you. It tells you that you're falling apart. It tells you that you're hungry. That you're tired, or that you've run enough, stop Already," Flores says.

But Flores won't be listening to that voice this Sunday when he runs his longest race yet of 33 miles.

"There is going to be definitely a lot of time to think," says Flores.

Trooper Flores will be thinking about two people he has never even met and one of them he won't ever get the chance to meet.

J.D. Taylor, the 13-year-old son of a Crawfordsville police officer, passed away last month from cancer. The other, 5-year-old Reagan, is the daughter of a fellow state trooper who just began her fight against cancer.

"She's going to be going through 56 weeks of chemo and radiation therapy," said Flores.

He says his run has already garnered plenty of attention.

"A lot of people have come up to me and said, 'Are you the trooper running 33 miles?' and I'll tell them 'Yeah,' and they'll ask me 'Are you crazy?'," Flores explained.

Flores will run north on US 231 from Crawfordsville all the way to Lafayette. He says that's an easy course compared to the uphill marathon kids face fighting cancer.

"The pain that I'll feel or any discomfort that I'll have will not compare close to what these kids have been going through," said Flores.

"They don't get to rest. They don't get to relax," he added.

But Flores will get to rest when Sunday's race is over and his two-year-old son Miguel and wife Charity, who's expecting their second baby, will be with him. Flores says he can't help feeling blessed even though he lost his own mother to colon cancer two years ago.

"I saw what cancer did to her," he said.

That's why even when Sunday's race is wearing him down, the thoughts of two kids will keep him running.

"I can go the extra mile or I can take that extra step and that's what's going to be pushing me," said Flores.

Half the donations and pledges raised will go to St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis in memory of J.D. Taylor. The other half will go to Reagan's family to help with her medical expenses.

For more information about the 33-mile run, you can contact Trooper Flores at trooperruns33@sbcglobal.net.