‘Back in the game’
Judy Tjoe creates triathlon team to help cancer survivors
About 10 years ago, surgeon Judy Tjoe had a patient, Kim, who had Stage 4 breast cancer that was metastatic when discovered.
The more treatment Kim could endure, the more time she could buy. Kim was up for an fight and she also wanted to enjoy her life, every day of it. She turned to Tjoe.
“Find me a way I can have enough energy so I can maximize the quality of my life,” Kim asked Tjoe, a breast cancer oncology surgeon at Aurora Sinai Medical Center.
Tjoe knew of all the medical treatments and therapies, of course, but something else came to mind because she had also just completed her first triathlon in 2006.
“I was starting to feel stronger, have more energy, my weight dropped back to where it should be,” said Tjoe.
It’s not the race itself that makes us healthy. It’s the daily training that begins months before the race, and the commitment, the better choices in nutrition, the self-awareness. Every day requires some movement, some improvement in diet.
“That’s what someone like me needed,” said Tjoe. “I thought, why would it be different for anybody else?”
Kim trained for that triathlon under Tjoe’s medical expertise, and that was very important. Tjoe knew what surgery Kim had, what chemotherapy she was getting, so she knew what limitations she was working with to train safely. Tjoe worked around that and set before Kim a training plan.
“Patients are very used to being prescribed something,” said Tjoe. “’When’s my radiation? When should I be at my next appointment? What’s the plan?’ They’re used to that, so this worked. This was prescribed exercise, which I think is medicine in some ways.”
Kim died three years ago, but not before completing her first triathlon and not without teaching Tjoe something.
“She lasted a long time,” said Tjoe. “With our training, she did feel that extra energy. She was able to get through more treatments because she felt well enough.”
With that in mind, Tjoe created the Team Phoenix triathlon team in 2011 with 11 breast cancer patients. On Sunday, Team Phoenix – 58 members strong, with women of all kinds of cancer and from different medical care facilities – completed the Tri-ing for Children’s Triathlon at Ottawa Lake State Park in Waukesha County.
Fighting breast cancer can be hell. Treatment strips patients of their energy, can throw them into premature menopause and can affect their metabolism and their desire and ability to exercise. It takes immense fortitude to fight through that. It helps to have support. “She’s got these fabulous photographs in her office,” said Wendy Von Der Linn, a photographer and cancer survivor. “Women in bathing caps and smiles and energy and beautiful. I said, ‘Tell me about these photographs?’
“And Dr. Tjoe was like, I really think we need to talk about why you’re here, first.”
Von Der Linn needed two surgeries and radiation to treat her cancer in 2016.
“And I couldn’t wait to find out when training started,” said Von Der Linn.
By this January she was in the pool, months before the official training program started, to get ready.
“To me, it’s good to have a goal. And the fitness part of it, I needed to get my head back in the game,” said Von Der Linn. “After radiation, I got on the treadmill every time for 20 minutes. That’s something I had control over. Some days were like towing a refrigerator, but that’s when it was in my head – I really want to do Team Phoenix.
“Some of these women have never swam before and now they’re swimming in a very cold lake and really putting in the effort. It inspires you.”
It also helps change a person’s identity.
Going to medical appointments and wearing hospital wristbands can wear away at who we really are. How we see ourselves. How others see us.
People stop asking about jobs and kids and recipes and movies and summer festivals. They ask about cancer.
Until … a triathlete-intraining emerges.
“You have your mom face, your wife face, and then you get the cancer face. You’re running in circles doing all these different jobs. You get to the point where someone asks you: what do you like to do?” said Holly Kronraj, who has been treated for breast cancer.
“And you don’t even know anymore because there’s no ‘you.’ You’re all these other things.
“In this program I’ve discovered I absolutely love running. And I’m actually pretty good at it. I never would have made the time to start running or get a treadmill at home in the basement with the kids if I didn’t have this.
“And now my spirit gets lifted, I can just run forever and I don’t think. I think too much outside of everything so if I’m running, I’m not thinking.”
In addition to Tjoe, the athletes have an army of support. The head coach is Lauren Jensen from Tri Faster, a nationally ranked triathlete. More coaches help with training. Doctors oversee progress. And best of all, Team Phoenix alumni volunteer.
Cory Johnson did her Team Phoenix triathlon in 2013 and then volunteered in 2014 and 2015. After a cancer diagnosis again in 2016 and a mastectomy, she’s back again as a volunteer.
It never gets old, seeing the determination and the triumph on a training run, or a first ever swim or an emotional finish line.
“Some women come in and say, ‘I can do this!’ And other women are like ‘Uhhhhhhhh, should I really be here? I don’t look like
them,’ ” Johnson said. “I mean, I ran … in
junior high. I just never thought of myself doing
that. And those people are crazy.”
Johnson went to a team meeting just to check it out, and guess what? There were no college athletes on track scholarships, just women with jobs and families and crammed schedules and oncologists.
“The variety of women there was amazing,” said Johnson. “Tall ones, short ones. Big ones, tiny ones. Athletic ones, scared ones. ... I was like, all right – I’ll do it.”
And when she did, Johnson discovered a love of cycling through the team. That’s not uncommon.
More than 160 women have come through the Team Phoenix program to do their first sprint triathlon: half-mile swim, 14-mile bike ride and 5K run.
Then more than half of the athletes continued to participate in triathlons of varying distances. And many have taken on new fitness challenges, including marathons, 100-mile bike rides and the Birkebeiner ski race.