Why she wanted to run a marathon
“Nobody really understands what it’s like to live with a high risk and not know where to put your energy. If you don’t take control of something that feels so out of control, it can feel very overwhelming,” she says. “Cancer leaves you feeling powerless. I felt like I had a ticking time bomb in my body. Running gave me that feeling of getting back to myself.”
“After I crossed that finish line, I had another finish line waiting for me. Four days after my 30th birthday, I had my breasts removed,” she says. “I’ve never felt stronger in my life. It was one of those moments where I felt like my whole life was changing. I was about to really get to know who I really am and fall in love with the new me.”
Having baby #2 was the motivation for marathon #2
A year later, her second child, another daughter, was born. “It was like a new beginning all over again. So, I decided I would run another race,” she says. She signed up for the 2018 New York Marathon, running for Bright Pink again.
“After that, I decided I was going to run all the world majors — London, Berlin, Chicago, New York, Boston and Tokyo,” she says.
Coccoluto lives outside of Boston and wanted to save that marathon for last. But life had other plans. One of her two sisters, Vanessa Federico, also tested positive for the BRCA genetic mutation. Federico wanted to run the Boston Marathon before her own double mastectomy.
Looking to reduce her risk of ovarian cancer, Coccoluto had already scheduled a complete hysterectomy for October 2022, and didn’t think she would be able to train for that marathon. But she counted out the weeks, and she had exactly enough time — eight weeks to recover from surgery and 20 weeks to train for the marathon. She signed up, raising money for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
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