Skip to main content

Dover High grad preps for run across U.S.


play
Show Caption

Gabriel Lloyd began running in seventh grade, just as something to do with friends. However, this decision quickly made him realize that running was a passion for him.

Running both cross country and track in high school, he went as far as the state championship for cross country and the district championship for track.

Lloyd kept running after graduating from Dover Area High School. He was running cross country for York College, when in the middle of October, he found an ad for a fundraiser run on Instagram. The ad was for a run that would consist of 30 people, running all the way from San Francisco to New York, called the 4K For Cancer.

Lloyd contacted the organization, the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults, and began the month-long process of interviews and the eventual selection for the run (along with 29 other people from across the country).

The Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults helps people ages 18-25 through their cancer treatments and journeys. The organization’s goal is to create a network to help the patients as a community. This run is the foundation's largest event.

The run will begin on June 18 and will continue for 49 days, ending on Aug. 5. Starting in San Francisco, the crew will run relay style up the West Coast, across the mid states, through the mountains of Colorado, into the the Great Lakes, around Niagara Falls, and finishing straight through to New York City.

That comes to more than 4,000 miles. Even though Lloyd will not be running the 4,000 miles alone, his share will be about 200 miles. Every member of the crew will be running everyday, with only one rest day for the whole journey. Along the way, the runners will be visiting kids in hospitals and delivering chemo care bags to patients.

In order to participate, the runners must raise a minimum of $4,500. All of the money raised will be going to the Ulman Cancer Fund. While going cross country, the runners will be relying on the generosity of YMCA’s, churches and hospitals.

Lloyd’s motivation for the run comes from recently losing two people close to him.“This summer, I had [jaw] surgery. When I went under anesthesia, two people in my life were sick with cancer. When I woke up”, Lloyd said, “both were gone. And that pushed me over the edge”. He felt a calling to this event after losing both a relative and a friend from high school.

“Sometimes going through treatment, people break no matter how strong they are. If I can help just one person, and me running inspires them, it makes all the fundraising and running worth it,” Lloyd said.

So how does one prepare for a race like this?

“Other than running ungodly miles?” Lloyd said with a laugh, “I want to get the community behind it.”

Lloyd plans to run nearly 300 miles as a part of his summer training. This is both in preparation for cross country and the 4K run. Power Train of York recently held a fundraiser, which people came out and supported. Lloyd has been receiving money through contacting friends and family, as well as through Facebook. He has gotten money from childhood friends, people he ran with through high school, and even some coaches and a referee.

Lloyd will be using Facebook for updates. To contribute financially, go to 4kforcancer.org and click on "donate" under the "How Can I Help" tab. Click "Find a Rider/Runner" and look for Lloyd's name. Any amount can help him reach his goal of touching and inspiring patients across the country.

“Its really amazing to think that I’ll be flying out there, and coming back literally on foot,” Lloyd said. “We all want to be Forrest Gump, and now I can be. I’m just really excited to be able to see and do something that not many people get to do.”

Sophie Barnes is a junior at Dover Area High School and a member of the York Daily Record's Teen Takeover staff.

About Teen Takeover

The York Daily Record's Teen Takeover program gives high school students from around York County the chance to gain experience in the journalism field.

Students in the program attend a monthly meeting, interview sources and write stories that are published online and in print.

Find more of their work at www.yorkteentakeover.com.