She celebrates turning 50 with half-marathon run

Geri Schwartz knew she was supposed to be happy when doctors told her 3 1/2 years ago that she didn't have lung cancer.

Schwartz had just undergone a serious operation to remove what turned out to be a benign mass from her left lung, and in the process she had to have a section of the lung removed. The operation had left her with 30 staples in her left side. It had also left her with some diminished function in the lung.

"They told me I was never going to run again, and I started crying," the Sands Point resident said. "I knew I was lucky not to have cancer, but I cried. Running is a part of my personality."

Three years later, with the help of inhalers and a strict training regimen that includes Pilates, Schwartz celebrated her 50th birthday Sunday by running the half marathon at the Long Island Marathon festival of races. She finished the race in 2 hours, 12 minutes and 48 seconds, which she was fairly happy with considering that the heat and thick humid air had made it harder for her to regulate her breathing.

Schwartz, who is a nursing professor at Adelphi, had been an ardent runner and just didn't seem ready to accept the news that her running days were over. Neither did her husband, Peter Schwartz, a retired surgeon.

"As soon as it was confirmed it was benign, I told her she would be running again," he said. "I just know that running is a big part of who she is."

Running had been so much a part of her Schwartz' life that she had run with pneumonia before, and she had gone out running the day before her lung surgery.

"After the surgery, I decided that they may have taken a piece of me, but they didn't take my spirit," she said. "That was my motivation."

Schwartz began working with Patricia Hussey, who owns Body n Sync Studio in Port Washington, to help regulate her breathing. And then she decided to start slowly.

"I went out just to go walking," she said. "Then I ran a little, walked a little. And then I just said, the hell with it, and I started just running."

In October of 2006, four months after her surgery, she did a three-mile run. She gradually increased her training and was able to do her first half marathon in 2007.

"I got a plaque for that marathon, and I took it and gave it to my doctor," she said with a smile.

Schwartz said she used to not like to tell anyone how old she is. Yet, if there's one thing that she has learned for her ordeal, it's to embrace what life has given you and she is throwing a huge birthday party for herself later this month to help raise money to combat breast cancer, which her mother died from.

Said Schwartz: "My theory is that you may come to some bumps in the road in life, but take the detours. I may not run the same times I once did, but I am out here running and loving life."