This race isn't about running

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Chris Fenton completed his sixth marathon of the year in Appleton, Wisconsin, in September. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's team raises money for blood cancer researchChris Fenton is running 10 marathons in six months in honor of his motherSharing personal stories helps runners focus on the goal, donors open wallets

(CNN) -- While the coastal town of Savannah, Georgia, fills with spectators on Saturday for the Rock 'n' Roll marathon, Chris Fenton and Laura Devrieze will be focused on the finish line.

For Fenton, crossing that line means completing his 10th marathon in six months. For Devrieze, it means finishing her first. For both, it's about running 26.2 miles for a parent with cancer.

Fenton and Devrieze are a part of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training program. As the world's largest endurance sports training program, Team in Training has raised $1.2 billion for blood cancer research.

The program started 23 years ago when Bruce Cleland formed a group to run the New York City Marathon in honor of his daughter, a leukemia survivor.

Approximately 45,000 runners are signed up this year for the New York marathon, which takes place on November 6. Many are associated with one of the 200 registered charities; in 2010 the race raised more than $30 million for different causes.

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Leukemia & Lymphoma Society communications manager Kristin Hoose says having a cause helps athletes focus on a goal, and having an athlete to support helps donors open their wallets.

"When people share their personal stories, and those of their heroes ... people see that their $10 can make a big difference."

A mother's strength

Chris Fenton was on a business trip in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, when he got a message from the secretary. His sister had called from Manhattan. Fenton looked at his watch and realized it was close to midnight in the States. Something was wrong.

"You hear those words for the first time: 'Mom has cancer.' You just kind of drop the phone and go into shock and say 'Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god,'" he said.

Chris Fenton with his mom, Barbara, left, and his Aunt Vicki, who has also survived cancer.

His mom, Barbara, is the matriarch of the Fenton family. As the second oldest of 14 children and a mother of six, Barbara received an outpouring of love after her non-Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis. She had always taken care of everyone else, now they would take care of her.

Treatment was hard. Barbara endured four courses of chemo and four of radiation therapy. In October 2001, she went into remission.

Fenton's left Achilles tendon is screaming at him as he talks about his mom -- now the picture of health at 78 -- from home in Kohler, Wisconsin.

"She's settling in, loves to be a grandmother and spoil the grandkids, and (is) just kind of enjoying the golden years," he says with a laugh.

A long-time runner, Fenton started his journey to honor his mom in May. He's running 10 marathons (to celebrate her 10th anniversary of going into remission) in six months -- the time it took from diagnosis to remission. Since May, he has logged more than 200 official miles. Saturday marks his final race.

"I'm still a middle-of-the-pack plodder," he says, "but I'm able to find my way around a marathon course."

He has raised close to $100,000 over the last 10 years and hopes to continue supporting blood cancer research with Team in Training.

"My mom's story had a positive outcome. There are a lot of people who don't."

A father's joy

People loved Harry Devrieze. With thinning dark hair and bright blue eyes, he had a smile that lit up a room. Friends and family were his priority and he never hesitated to lend a helping hand.

The owner of a construction business, he often came by his daughter Laura's house in Carrollton, Georgia, to make repairs. It was from him that she learned plumbing, drywall and her way around the Home Depot store.

Laura Devrieze smiles with her dad, Harry, at a family member's graduation party.

"He loved doing that -- he loved fixing things, he loved gardening, he loved working around the house."

Two years ago, Harry developed a rare, aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. After chemotherapy, he was giving a clean bill of health, but the cancer returned and was discovered in January.

The Devrieze family was almost surprised by the intensity of the disease the second time around. The toll it took on Harry's body was more menacing.

"This was a full attack on his bones, his lungs, his muscles," Devrieze remembers.

It was during this time that she went to her first Team in Training meeting and signed up for the Rock 'n' Roll marathon. Running gave her time to clear her mind and be by herself. Her dad supported Devrieze's decision to race and to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

"It was always important for him for me to be involved and kind of have a cause," Devrieze says. "He's the reason I was doing it, but he didn't want to be the reason I was doing it."

While she ran 5 miles, then 10, then 15, her dad started preparing for a stem cell transplant. He spent the month of May at Emory University Hospital. On Saturdays, Devrieze joined Team in Training in Atlanta for a run and then went to visit him.

Harry was released from the hospital in late June after the transplant didn't take. He passed away on August 16, 2011 at age 70.

For a couple of weeks, Devrieze refused to run, clutching to the friends and family Harry had held so close. Then she picked up her shoes and moved with the pain.

For Devrieze, Saturday will be yet another reminder of her loss. Her dad won't be there to watch her cross the finish line. That's why she's all the more determined to do exactly that.

"He was very proud and very excited. This is the longest I've ever run. It's mind over body, and having a greater purpose ... makes the mind part work better."

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HEALTH MANAGEMENT. Head count: running backs take hits hardest, linemen take the most

Researchers gathered data on the frequency, direction, and magnitude of head impacts from players who wore sensor-equipped helmets during three football seasons at Brown University, Dartmouth College, and Virginia Tech. The data amount to a measure of players' exposure to head impacts, which can ultimately help physicians and scientists understand how concussions occur.
Thousands of college football players began competing around the nation this week, but with the thrill of the new season comes new data on the risks of taking the field. A new study reports that running backs and quarterbacks suffer the hardest hits to the head, while linemen and linebackers are hit on the head most often. The researchers measured head blows during games and practices over three seasons at Brown University, Dartmouth College, and Virginia Tech.
The study, led by Joseph J. Crisco, professor of orthopaedics in the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and director of the bioengineering laboratory at Rhode Island Hospital, documented 286,636 head blows among 314 players in the 2007-09 seasons. Crisco said the new data on the magnitude, frequency, and location of head blows amounts to a measure of each player's head impact exposure. Ultimately it can help doctors understand the biomechanics of how blows to the head result in injury.
"This allows us to quantify what the exposure is," Crisco said. "It is the exposure that we need to build upon, so that we can then start understanding what the relationships are with acute and chronic head injury."
The study appears online in advance in the Journal of Biomechanics.
Concussions and other head injuries have become a source of elevated concern in football and other sports in recent years, with various leagues revising policies to protect players better. In part based on seeing this new data, said Robin Harris, Ivy League executive director, league officials announced earlier this year that full-contact practices would be limited to two a week.
Hits by position
The new study documents the nature of head blows by player position. Players on the three teams wore helmets equipped with wireless sensors that measured acceleration in various directions. That data allowed the team of researchers from Brown, Dartmouth, Virginia Tech, and sensor-maker Simbex to discern how hard the hit was, how often each player was hit, and where on the helmet they were hit.
Crisco devised the algorithm that Simbex's Head Impact Telemetry System uses to measure head impacts. The system's development and this study were funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment.
The data on head acceleration and hit direction are used to calculate a composite score of exposure called HITsp that researchers believe might be a good predictor of concussion. On average, running backs had the highest HITsp, 36.1, followed by quarterbacks with 34.5 and linebackers at 32.6. Offensive and defensive linemen had the lowest HITsp numbers, with 29.0 and 28.9 respectively, but along with linebackers, they were hit on the head most often. Doctors worry not only about hit severity, but also hit frequency, because repeated head impacts may cause "subconcussive" neurological damage over time.
By analyzing head impacts by position, Crisco said, researchers can help football league officials and equipment designers begin to think about ways to make players safer.
"It will allow us to begin to understand how to control the exposures," Crisco said. Controlling head impact exposure is critical, he added, because there are currently no treatments for acute or chronic brain injuries, and helmets cannot prevent injuries for all players in all situations.
One possibility could include rule changes. Another could include designing helmets for specific positions.
Crisco and his colleagues are now analyzing data about concussions during the three seasons to determine how and whether head impact exposure is associated with injury. He recently co-authored another paper about male and female collegiate hockey players, which reported that although women were diagnosed with more concussions, they sustained fewer and less severe head impacts.
Although Crisco's analysis is still underway, his insights into head impact exposure led him and co-author Richard Greenwald, a Dartmouth engineer, to write a commentary earlier this year in Current Sports Medicine Reports, in which they argued that intentional use of the head in sports must be curbed.
"We propose the adoption of rules - or in some sports, we champion the enforcement of existing rules - that eliminate intentional head contact in helmeted sports," they wrote. "When coupled with education that leads to modified tackling, blocking, or checking techniques, these rules will reduce head impact exposure and have the potential to reduce the incidence and severity of brain injury."
Crisco, a former college football and lacrosse player, said he is passionate about contact sports and believes they have many benefits.
"Hitting is an essential component," he said. "But intentional hitting with your head was never part of any sport and is poor technique."

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