LINCOLN PARK — For Anastasia DeLeo, it's all about taking the next step, in running in Thursday's 39th annual Turkey Trot, just as it was in her recovery from cancer.
DeLeo and her boyfriend, Peter Pietrusiewicz, are both devoted runners, and they will take part in Thursday's Turkey Trot after they had to miss the race a year ago.
DeLeo, 29, was diagnosed with breast cancer early last year, and she describes her treatment almost as if it were one of the Chicago races they routinely take part in.
"It was never about dwelling and suffering, it was about getting to the next step," DeLeo said. "OK, so I got this, so what's next? What's the next step? How do we get to the next step? How do we move forward and get through this as quickly as possible? Do what the doctors tell me to do and keep moving forward. It was all about taking steps determined to get to the end and get over it."
The treatment took most of last year.
"I went through chemo and surgery," she said. "I went through a double mastectomy and radiation, finishing right around the Turkey Trot last year."
Thus, the significance of the Thanksgiving Day race to her and Pietrusiewicz, as they ran in it a couple of years before and targeted a return this year, beginning with her return to running last winter.
"Before cancer, I definitely would never have run in cold weather," said DeLeo, a Lincoln Park resident. "And then, as running became more and more a part of my life, the more I need it. I need to go out and run. So even in the cold and wind my dog and I go out running."
Dogs played a critical part in getting the couple together. "He has a husky and I have a beagle, and the dogs met at North Avenue Beach. We've been together ever since," she said, and that was three years ago.
This fall, they took part in the Bucktown 5k and finished, running all the way.
"That was pretty significant for us, because normally we have to stop," DeLeo said. "It really marked progress in our training."
They followed that with the Hot Chocolate 15k right before Halloween.
"Every one of these races was important to us, because during chemo and during my treatment I wasn't able to do it. I didn't have the energy, and it was taken from me," DeLeo said. "When things are not an option, they become that much more valuable."
Now comes the Turkey Trot, which they consider the perfect way to begin Thanksgiving.
"We're thankful for each other and for our health and for the ability we have to get up and get there and spend some time together," DeLeo said. "It's huge to both of us.
"We both can do it together and have each other there for motivation throughout each of the races," she added. "We take that and we use that. It's just another day day we have together without cancer."
Pietrusiewicz, a 36-year-old O'Hare resident, "has been my best friend throughout the entire thing," DeLeo said. "Before cancer, through cancer and after cancer he's been my rock through this whole thing.
"Most of the runs we finish with our hands together," she added. "We start the races together. We finish the races together. That's how we do life."
DeLeo, an accountant for the Chicago Police Department, said they take part in as many Chicago runs as possible because it also gives them an added appreciation for the city. Her favorite is the Hot Chocolate, running south through the Loop to 35th Street, but there's no denying the significance of the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day, "running through Lincoln Park we normally walk our dogs through," she added.
Some 8,000 people are expected to take part in what's formally called the Turkey Day Run Chicago, which starts at 9 a.m. near Cannon Drive and Fullerton Parkway and circles up the running path along Lake Shore Drive to Addison Street for the 5k or Montrose for the 8k, which DeLeo and Pietrusiewicz will be running, then back down to the finish at the north end of Diversey Harbor, where a tailgate party will be going all morning. A kids' race known as the Plymouth Rock Ramble begins at 11 a.m. in the Diversey Driving Range parking lot near the finish line.
A fundraiser for the Greater Chicago Food Depository, it brought in $12,500 and 7,200 pounds of food last year.
DeLeo said that, for her and Pietrusiewicz, it will be another step toward stretching out to a half marathon, "maybe next year or the year after." But she added that she expects they'll eventually pull up short of a full marathon, saying, "Neither Pete nor I have any desire to go through the agony that entails."
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