In a column that appeared in the May 22, 2026 issue of The Press Times of Green Bay, former sports editor Rich Palzewic wrote about his cancer diagnosis and participation in a half-marathon two years after receiving the diagnosis.
According to the column:
On Nov. 1, 2023, at the age of 51, he underwent a routine colonoscopy, only to hear the words, “I think it’s cancerous.”
“Doctors found a medium-sized tumor in my rectum that had invaded the rectal wall and was touching my bladder. Further tests concluded I did in fact have cancer — which was eventually diagnosed as Stage 3B — but thankfully, it had not spread to any other parts of my body,” Palzewic wrote. “Keep in mind, I had no symptoms of any sort.”
Beginning with chemotherapy and radiation in January 2024, Palzewic was equipped with a pump that injected one milliliter of chemo into a port in his body every hour for 40 straight days and went through 28 rounds of radiation.
After a week of recovery, Phase II included the reattachment of his chemo pump for two days, then having it removed for 12 days. He alternated feeling good and bad for five cycles of 14 days of treatment each, or a total of 60 days.
His doctor called off the treatment — but an x-ray showed his colorectal cancer had been obliterated. Gone.
But not all the news was good: the same scan showed a large blood clot had formed near his spleen, which was probably the result of treatment. A call from the doctor — while he was at home sitting on the couch watching the Olympics — a visit to the emergency room, an overnight stay in the hospital and some blood thinners for six months eliminated the clot.
Palzewic decided to participate in the EPIC half-marathon on Sunday May 17 in Green Bay because it had been 25 years since he participated in one and his girlfriend, Meg, challenged him to do it. They began training in February.
“I not only wanted to complete EPIC to prove I could do such a thing after battling cancer, but also for all cancer survivors and those currently battling the United States’ No. 2 cause of death,” Palzewic wrote.
He is scheduled to run his first Bellin 10K on June 13 — Meg’s birthday — and plans to head to Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, also known as RAGBRAI, in late July.
“This year’s route is approximately 400 miles in seven days of riding, complete with heat, hills, humidity, cornfields,” Palzewic wrote, “and about 30,000 of my best friends.”
