For Judy Williams running is part of her life. She moved to Florida in 1989 and has run in almost every Gasparilla Distance Classic race since.

“My daughters have run in one more Gasparilla than they are old because I ran with each of them as fetuses in my belly,” said Williams.

In 2015, she and her then 16-year-old daughter trained to run all four Gasparilla races, a total of 30-plus miles in two days.

“That year I consider and credit Gasparilla for saving my life,” said Williams.

During the course of the weekend, Williams admits that she did not drink enough water to properly rehydrate after all those miles.

“So that night, I would up in the hospital because I kept throwing up. I had dehydrated. Finding myself in the hospital just kept throwing up and throwing up no matter how much IV they were giving me,” she recalls.

In the hospital, the doctors performed a CT scan of her stomach, and that is when they found a cyst. That cyst turned out to be stage 2 ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer is often called the “silent killer” because it does not have many symptoms until the later stages. Oftentimes when it’s too late. Without that CT scan, Williams’ cancer may have continued to grow.

“I had lost my husband about a year and a half earlier, so my daughters were facing the fact that they might lose their second parent. It was just extraordinary that they found my cancer at stage 2,” Williams said.

Following the diagnosis, Williams had an operation to remove the cancer and spent 18 weeks in chemotherapy. The following year in 2016, after the treatments, she and her daughter laced back up their shoes to run all four Gasparilla Distance Classic races again.

“It was extremely emotional the year after I had the chemo and operation,” she recalls.

This year, Williams’ daughter will come home from college to run the races again. They will line up for the 15K race Saturday and the half marathon on Sunday. It is a new challenge from the Gasparilla Distance Classic called “Michelob Ultra Pure Gold Challenge.”

Even though her trip to the hospital may have saved her life, Williams is now more diligent about hydration. She offers the following tips. “You cannot hydrate in your 50s like you did in your 20s,” she said. She recommends extra hydration starting at least the day before a long run. On race day, start hydrating early during the race and alternate between water and sports drinks. Finally, she reminds everyone to hydrate after the run too.

In the end, Williams says to listen to you body. “Use running books and articles as a guide, but no one knows your body like you do,” she explained. That means slow down if you need to or even take a rest day.

The Publix Gasparilla Distance Classic is February 23rd and 24th. You can participate in the 15K (9.3 miles) or the 5K (3.1 miles) races on Saturday. The half marathon (13.1 miles) and the 8K (5 miles) are Sunday.

Read more about Gasparilla here.