Many of the people who participated in this year's Livestrong Challenge are seasoned runners and cyclists, but not cancer survivor Jane Porpora.
"I was never a runner before and I never thought that I'd be running in races. It's the first race I've ever been, so it really means a lot," she said.
Jane’s motivation is a new lease on life. She was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2003, went through chemotherapy and now says she’s doing great.
"My husband just took over and did all the research on the disease and found out the best course we should take for treatment and because of him, I think I have a good future," she said.
The Lance Armstrong Foundation promotes and produces some of that research, as well as an awareness campaign to get more cancer patients to beat the odds.
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Livestrong Challenge
News 8 Austin's Hermelinda Vargas reports from the Travis County Expo Center.
 
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The Porpora’s say Armstrong's book "It's Not About the Bike" inspired them to race.
"We don't sweat the small stuff as much as we used to. We kind of keep the big picture. And I think any time we sit at the dinner table and there's four of us there having dinner, I think that's pretty good," husband Ralph Porpora said.
More than 2,000 runners, walkers and bikers took part in the first-ever Livestrong Challenge on Sunday, but the race isn’t completely new. It’s a spin off of what used to be the Lance Armstrong Foundation's "Ride for the Roses" cancer fundraiser.
Organizers spread the event over several days and cities to accommodate more people. The changes made an impression on first-time participants the Porpora’s.
"It's just wonderful that we're able to be here. It's hard to believe that only about three years ago, we were sitting in the hospital, and my wife was getting chemotherapy. And now here she is running six miles at a faster rate than I thought she would. So that's a great thing," Ralph Porpora said.
