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During last year’s ultramarathon Race for the Ages — run over Labor Day weekend and geared toward runners over age 40 — Colleen Johnson, 63, spent the first 14 hours with an unwelcome running partner. Hurricane Harvey was lashing through the South, including her native Tennessee, where the race was run, and she slogged mile after mile in pouring rain.With an arthritic knee, she wobbled and waded as the blisters expanded on the soles of her feet. By the end of the race, the bottom of one foot was bloody and the other was getting close. Drenched, miserable and in pain, Johnson had her first moment of hesitation about completing a course since she started running in 2013. But it lasted only a moment.“I’d set a goal,” she told Runner’s World by phone. “When I make a decision, I do it, come hell or high water. Even if that means literally.” So she finished her 100-mile race.That sense of determination and motivation has been a theme for Johnson over the past six years. After being diagnosed with endometrial cancer — also called uterine cancer — two days after her 57th birthday she underwent a radical hysterectomy, radiation and hormone therapy. Like many cancer patients, she began to research her condition and discovered that estrogen and insulin helped to feed her cancer cells. Body fat percentage and exercise make a difference in survival rates, she learned. In fact, according to a 2016 meta-analysis published in Gynecologic Oncology, women with endometrial cancer who had a body mass index of 40 or above — well over the “obese” cutoff of 30 — were 66 percent more likely to die during follow-up than women with a normal BMI below 25. And for each 10 percent increase in BMI, their chances of dying early rose by 9 percent.At 240 pounds, she knew she needed to lose weight, but she first had to tackle the exercise portion of the equation.“I absolutely hate exercise, I can’t state that strongly enough, it’s the worst,” she said. “I’ve been pretty obese most of my adult life, and let’s be honest. You don’t get like that if you love exercise. But I wanted a better chance at living.”She tried running a loop on her gym’s track. Nope. She tried again, and again, to run continuously for a single lap. Still no success. But a trainer saw her struggle and suggested that she run right behind him as he slowly made his way around. This time, it worked.“That’s when I realized that running wasn’t a physical challenge, it’s a mental one,” she said. “If I could get over that barrier, I could run any distance.”Johnson proved that point easily in the next few years.After taking on her first 5K in 2013 — and discovering a love for crossing finish lines — she completed her first marathon only five months later. By then, she was 140 pounds, her type 2 diabetes had reversed itself, and she thought of a handy way to stay motivated: by wearing her mission on a t-shirt.She had a shirt printed with a front that read “From Cancer to 5K” (It now reads “From Cancer to a Marathon”). But it was the back that means the most to her. That message highlights how many women die every year as a result of endometrial cancer. For her first race, that number was 8,190. Unfortunately, since the rate of deaths from endometrial cancer are increasing, this year’s shirt listed 11,340 that she honors with her run.“I run to keep myself off the back of my shirt,” Johnson said. “Although I started running to save my life, what I never anticipated was the reaction from people who see the shirt. I didn’t think this would affect others, but it really has.”People feel inspired, she said. For example, one woman told her that if Johnson can outrun cancer and finish a 100-mile race, she could fulfill a lifelong dream and attend college.“Somehow, the messages on both sides of the shirt give people strength and motivation,” she said. “I realized there’s power in what I’m doing.”Johnson’s most passionate wish is for that power to translate into more action for endometrial cancer research, which she feels is sorely lacking right now. The cancer doesn’t have the kind of prominent foundation that drives research funding and awareness, she noted, and it doesn’t even have a race dedicated to the cancer specifically.“I’ve run close to 200 races now, most for cancer,” she said. “But the one cause that I would like to run a race for more than anything is the cancer that brought me to running in the first place. I can’t run for the cancer that almost took my life, because there isn’t a race for that.”Until that race exists, Johnson is ready to keep running every race she can — most recently, this year’s Race for the Ages — and building awareness for endometrial cancer. She’s also made an impact in getting endometrial cancer included in the National Comprehensive Cancer Network’s Guidelines for Patients, which was published in early September. This specific type of cancer wasn’t included in previous versions. “There is a wall of silence that surrounds endometrial cancer,” she said. “That silence has deadly consequences, and that’s why I run. To educate the public, and to give these women a voice.”