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LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Time now for StoryCorps. The New York City Marathon takes place this weekend, and today's StoryCorps is about a couple who ran that race together. Gweneviere Mann lost her short-term memory after surgery to remove a brain tumor. Her husband, Yasir Salem, suggested they take up marathons to keep her spirits up.
YASIR SALEM: Are there any positive things that have come out of losing your memory that you can look back on?
GWENEVIERE MANN: Well, (laughter) I ran the New York City Marathon with you. And when we got to the end, you and I were running across the finish line. And as if on cue, I started crying my eyes out. I was so happy.
FADEL: That was from a conversation in 2011, Mann died of lung cancer a few years later. Salem remembered how he dealt with losing his wife.
SALEM: I was in a really, really dark place. Gwen's passing had taken all of my heart away, you know? At that point, I was like, OK, well, I got to do something, you know, honor her somehow - something big. And that something big was I wanted to run 50 marathons. A marathon in every state in a year.
Marathon No. 1 was New York City on November 4, 2018. No. 2 was Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll Marathon.
I was running one marathon, sometimes two marathons. Every once in a while, I'd run three marathons in a week.
No. 24 was the Fargo Marathon in North Dakota on May 8.
I decided I was never going to run with music. I wasn't going to try to escape out of my thoughts. I was just going to be in it, running with the pain, running through it. I would have moments where - just wearing those sunglasses, and I could just let it all out. You know, it was good.
And finally, No. 50 was the Marine Corps Marathon in Arlington, Virginia, October 27 of 2019.
When I finished the 50 races, I was really proud of myself. It was just a year of thinking about Gwen. And the running was really just kind of like this vehicle for remembering her. It's been six years, but remembering her is tricky sometimes. I don't know. I guess I'm just a little scared of how terrible it will feel, you know? But Gwen was just full of life and full of love. I got to live that vibrancy every day, and I'm so thankful for that. I'm engaged to be married now, and it took me a long time to get here - lots of bumps on the road. And I found a wonderful partner who's created a lot of space for me to be able to love Gwen and to love her. And I can love again.
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FADEL: Yasir Salem for StoryCorps. Salem used the money he raised from his marathons to create the Gweneviere Mann Foundation. It funds the early detection of lung cancer and brain tumors. This interview is archived at the Library of Congress. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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