In Finnish, to have the sisu means to be determined, to be brave, to be resilient, to persevere through adversity. The word has no direct English translation, but it has grown to epitomize the Finnish people and their reputation for hardiness, for their ability to stand firm in the face of even the trickiest obstacle.
It takes a special person to possess the quality, and growing up, Hope Benson’s grandfather, Herman Lindman, often said he saw the sisu in her.
It was put to the test 19 years ago, when Benson was diagnosed with stage three colon cancer. Again, when she decided to train for and compete in a triathlon after the diagnosis. Again, when, after 17 years of being cancer-free, she was diagnosed with early-stage endometrial cancer.
It was put to the test when she set out to run the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C.; when she broke her toe at the start of a triathlon, shoved it into her sneaker, and finished the race; and again when she ran two 200-mile Ragnar relay races with her husband Tom, son Tommy, daughters Karyn and Lauren, and Lauren’s wife, Stacey.
She’ll put it to the test this year on April 18, when she runs the Boston Marathon for the first time. Both Toms and Karyn will be by her side, with Lauren and Stacey cheering from the sidelines.
A Hamilton resident, Benson is running the race as part of the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge team, which helps fund the work done at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a cancer research and treatment center based in Boston. Its mission is to “provide expert, compassionate care to children and adults with cancer while advancing the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure and prevention of cancer and related diseases,” and the ultimate goal is the “eradication of cancer, AIDS and related diseases and the fear that they engender.”
Members of the DFMC team do not have to qualify by time for the marathon, though they do need to submit an application. Once accepted, they receive a training plan crafted by a coach (this year’s coach is Jack Fultz, who won the Boston Marathon in 1976). Participants must make a fundraising commitment of at least $5,000, and 100 percent of the donations goes directly towards research.
Such research saved Benson’s life when she was first diagnosed. She was put on a trial drug—the same one that is helping treat her mother-in-law, who was recently diagnosed with stage four colon cancer.
“Part of the reason that I’m doing this is, we’ve got to find a cure for cancer,” Benson said. “Cancer just sucks. There’s no easy way around it. It’s been prevalent twice in my life, and at the end of the day, I’m beyond blessed to be here and be able to do this. There are certain people who, given those situations, would never be able to do this. It’s not going to be pretty, but we’re going to do this.”
* * *
Hope Benson was teaching chemistry and a little bit of biology at Steinert High School when she started feeling intestinal pains in 1997. At 40 years old, she thought it was normal, and doctors said as much.
“Nothing” turned into stage three colon cancer.
The disease had spread through her lymphatic system, and Benson underwent an operation and six months of chemotherapy to kill the cancer.
Her first chemo session did not go smoothly. Benson was in the hospital for nine days afterwards, and “nearly died,” Tom said. She received half of the initial dosage the second session and still had some adverse effects. She had another hospital stay, this time five days.
With three young children—Karyn was 13, Lauren 11, and Tommy 10—the illness was tough for her and her family to manage. But with the help of friends, family and co-workers, the Bensons were well-taken care of. Three months worth of dinners were supplied by Steinert colleagues—lasagna was a common dish and their son’s favorite, Tom said. She lived by her mantra—Have Outrageous Positive Expectations—and after countless treatments and check-ups, Benson was declared cancer-free.
“I got through that, and it was just very hard,” Benson said. “I don’t know that I could do it without all the support from my friends and my family, everybody around me, my church. I could just go on about the wonderful people that were there for me at that time.”
* * *
When her mother was first diagnosed with colon cancer, Lauren Benson knew she would be okay. Maybe it was the sisu.
Lauren knew Benson was sick—the frequent appointments and hospital visits were hard to ignore—but she never doubted her mom’s ability to persevere. Looking back now, she realizes how serious it was. But at the time, she viewed it as just another obstacle her mom would beat.
“In my mind, my mom always gets things done,” she said. “She’s determined to finish things, and this wasn’t any different. Later, I got more of a fuller picture. The implications were greater than what I was aware of at the time. I don’t know if I was just being young and naïve, if my parents were sheltering me, or what. But we had tons of support.”
Lauren graduated from Steinert in 2004, and then went on to study chemistry at Amherst College in Massachusetts, where she also played field hockey and ran track. She is currently working towards a PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the department of kinesiology, and she did her masters thesis work on running injury mechanics. She has run 15 marathons in 13 states, and her wife, Stacey, has run 44 in 35 states—Stacey’s goal has always been to run one in every state, and now Lauren is along for the ride, though she starting running in high school, like her siblings.
Karyn was the first of the Benson kids to start running. She wanted to try out for Steinert’s field hockey team as a freshman, and running a 9-minute mile was part of the requirements. She woke up early most summer days to train with her dad, who also developed a fondness for running. Karyn, who is currently pursuing her PhD in computer science at the University of California San Diego, ended up being the second-fastest on the team, and she and her dad have run nearly 20 marathons between them since that summer.
Tommy also started running during his freshman year at Steinert—and he hated it, at first. He trained with his distance-minded family to join the cross country, but the runs were exhausting. Soon enough, though, he developed a knack for the sport, and after three years on varsity, he set out to advance to the XC Meet of Champions in the fall of his senior year. So Tom counted back 300 days before the meet and elevated his training. He completely cut out sweets, except for one splurge on his birthday: a single peanut butter cup. And, sure enough, he reached the MoC.
He went on to Harvard to study earth and planetary sciences. He currently attends Stanford, where he is finishing up his PhD and studying large supervolcanic eruptions associated with the Yellowstone hotspot. (Yes, all three Benson kids are working on their PhDs this year.) He maps out and runs experiments on volcanoes, and he said, it’s “awesome.” Trips out West with his family growing up, plus his mom’s background in science, inspired his love for the field.
After being forced to quit running in college due to shin splints, Tommy started up again while working through the Fulbright program in Iceland. He started at Stanford the next year, and how could he not want to run in sunny California after a year racing through the cold? He signed up for the San Francisco Half Marathon, his first race since high school, and finished in ninth place. After a car accident immobilized him for six months nearly three years ago, he was forced to put off running. Once recovered, Tommy signed up for the Santa Rosa Marathon last August, his first marathon. Early-morning training runs became part of his routine in the Oregon high desert, where he was mapping and collecting samples for geology studies. He ended up coming in 10th place.
The sisu must run in the family.
* * *
The Bensons have a home in the Poconos, and each year, the community holds a triathlon. It’s not regulation—it consists of a one-mile swim, 10-mile bike ride and four-mile run—but after she was diagnosed, and with “a new lease on life,” Hope decided she wanted to compete in it. Her whole family is athletic, so why not try it?
“They all kind of laughed at me,” she said. “‘Mom doesn’t do that. Mom’s mom.’ But, I got through it. It wasn’t really pretty. I’m married to somebody very athletic. My kids are athletic out the wazoo. I’m just trying to keep up with my family. That was my original goal.”
That goal turned into running a marathon. For someone who had never even run a 5K until then, the task was daunting. But she stuck to her training and has since run four marathons, a few halfs and two 200-mile Ragnar relay races, one in Florida and one California, with her whole family.
Though her kids were surprised when she started training nearly two decades ago, now, it’s just all part of Mom’s character. The confidence they saw brewing in her was unmatched, Karyn said.
“She’s a super strong person,” Karyn said. “She can be very stubborn at times, too, so I think that helps. She’s very determined. A lot of times, parents tell their kids, ‘You can do anything you want.’ But she actually does it and shows it to her kids, and that has helped me in my life.”
Lauren agreed.
“I think she likes to challenge and push herself,” she said. “She won’t take the easy way out. It would be easy for her to go off and do her own thing, but she’s gotten to the point where she knows it’s good for her, so she exercises. It’s been pretty inspiring to see someone do incredible things a lot of people can’t. She is very athletic, but she really came into this after 40 years of not doing anything like that.
A year and a half ago, just as she finished an Olympic-length Rev3 triathlon in the Poconos (where her journey started), Benson was feeling good. But shortly after, she experienced abnormal bleeding.
“I went to the doctor, and he’s like, ‘You have cancer,’” she said. “I said, ‘Excuse me?’ I had already been through that scene, and here we go again.”
It was stage one endometrial cancer, but, thankfully, a full hysterectomy took care of it. After the surgery, though, she developed a blood clot and was put on a blood thinner. A month later, she started hemorrhaging, but because of the medication, doctors couldn’t stop the bleeding. She was surrounded by 20 doctors and nurses at Fox Chase Cancer Center, getting prepped for emergency surgery. Then, all of a sudden, the bleeding just stopped.
“It’s been smooth sailing ever since,” her husband said.
* * *
Tom and Hope train together constantly. It’s become their “thing.” Though Hope said he is faster than her, he keeps pace with her no matter what, whether they’re running in a race or just jogging through Mercer County Park. And he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“She’s amazing in just her will and trying to do what it takes,” Tom said. “She’ll say she’s not trying to win, and yet she does has this, when it gets down to it, this competitiveness…I think that I want to challenge myself and go faster, but whether it’s any team sport, or a championship, or running sub-8 minute miles, the most fulfillment I get out of running is when I run with my running mate.”
That’s been characteristic of his parents for as long as he can remember, Tommy said.
“My dad texts me his times, and he gets excited when he is pushing himself,” he said. “It’s really rewarding for him. But above all, he values the time he can spend with Mom. He would gladly drop everything, whether it’s a time or anything, to be with her and run together. They really value each other’s company.”
The same goes for their children. Whenever the whole family is together, running seems to be a central activity. They all look forward to their group runs around Christmas time, and the April trip to Boston will be no different. Karyn said it will be a “celebration.”
And for Hope, it definitely will be. She likened running a marathon to battling cancer. The training is similar to learning new terms after a diagnosis. There’s always going to be a struggle along the way; you’re always going to hit a wall. But it’s how you react when you reach that wall that determines you you finish.
“There are days where it’s hard to get out of bed,” she said. “It’s hard to deal with all the treatments and things like that. It’s just like it. It really is. But, you cross the finish line, and you get a medal. You can dance, and you look back and you say, ‘Gosh, I did it, and I got through.’ It’s the people on the sidelines with the bells and the signs, and it really does take all of that to get across.”
Having the sisu helps, too.
“She is a very, very tenacious, feisty person,” her son said. “Those character traits are embedded in her personality in everything she does. She was an amazing science teacher, and inspired thousands of students throughout career. As a mother, she is incredible. She never let us slack. She always inspires us.”
To donate to Hope Benson’s cause, visit runDFMC.org/2016/hopeb.
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