Barb Murphy crosses the finish line at the 2000 Boston Marathon

Everything about this project – the 5k race, the novel, the charity beer – ties back to Barb Murphy and the courage she showed.

Barb, my wife, was a marathon runner who got non-smoker’s lung cancer out of the blue in 2007. She fought it for six years before she passed away in 2013.

I wrote Runner in Red as a period piece set in 2000, the year of the Boston Marathon’s Millennial Marathon, because the dawn of a new century offered the perfect setting to showcase the resiliency of women – but also because that’s the race Barb wanted to run as a 50th birthday present to herself.

She trained hard, she qualified – and she nailed it, as the photo above shows.

Barb was all about action – she was always focused on what she could do for others. To continue Barb’s mantle of action, family and friends have devised ways to support a cure for lung cancer, which (many people don’t know) takes the lives of more women than any other cancer, many of whom – like Barb – never smoked.

Profits from my novel “Runner in Red” will go to the cause, along with proceeds from the Runner in Red 5K races we offer.

In terms of the lung cancer campaign, family and friends have created the Runner in Red/ Barb’s Beer Foundation. The Foundation, a 501c3 charity, offers race, yes, but also recruits restaurants and taverns to put Barb’s Beer on tap to raise funds. In turn, we give proceeds to our lung cancer charity partners, led by cancerGRACE.org. That charity was founded by Dr. Howard West, Barb’s oncologist and one of the country’s leading experts working for a cure.

Look for the Runner in Red race in your community, and join us.

We’re grateful to everyone working with us to grow and expand this effort to help cure lung cancer. If you have any questions contact me at tom@tommurphy.org.

Thank you, all, for taking an interest –and showing love for running as Barb did.

See you on the roads!
Tom Murphy