Four years ago in the shadow of Chicago’s Aon building, surrounded by 40,000 people, Chicago marathon runner Jeff Goad stopped thinking about cancer and got back to running his life.

“It hit me how unbelievably gratifying it was to just be there when I didn’t even know if I’d be around,” he says. “With cancer, your life revolves around all the medical stuff. You don’t feel any control over the things you’re passionate about. I refused to let that define me.”