2020 Denver Colfax Marathon

In 2016, my family and I were introduced to Achieving Cures Together (ACT) and the Westerhaus family. In 2015, we lost our beautiful "Nana" (grandma) to C. difficile, and have been "Running for Nana" ever since to fight back against this devastating infection.

In preparing for Grandma's Marathon in 2016, we worked with Dr. Alexander Khoruts and his team at the University of Minnesota’s Microbiota Therapeutics Program to support his research and raise awareness for their fight against C. difficile. Through that partnership, Dr. Khoruts connected us with Peter Westerhaus, a recipient of the lifesaving FMT procedure and the founder of ACT.

In October of 2017, we had the opportunity to run with the ACT Twin Cities 10 Mile team and attend the post-race event to learn more about ACT's impact in this fight.

Drawing on the energy and promise of this research, we expanded west and ACT became an official Charity Partner in the Colfax Marathon races in Denver, Colorado!

In May 2018, we had 16 people “Running for Nana” in either the 5K or the half marathon, and we were so grateful to have the Westerhaus family join us in Colorado for race weekend! We gathered together for treats and fellowship after the 5K race on Saturday, and had a chance to hear Peter's story and hear more about ACT and breakthroughs in C. difficile research and cures.

In May of 2019, our team more than doubled as 38 runners joined together on a beautiful sunny weekend to further microbiome research and "Run for Nana" on the Achieving Cures Together race team.

We loved growing the ACT community into Colorado and are thrilled to continue this partnership by launching the Third Annual Achieving Cures Together (ACT) team at the Colfax Marathon Weekend in Colorado! To learn more or to register for one of the races (5K, 10 Mile, Half or Full Marathon), just visit www.runcolfax.org/races/register and select Achieving Cures Together as your charity partner. Additionally, we completely understand that running isn’t everyone’s thing! If you’d still like to “Run for Nana” and support ACT, please click here to be redirected to the fundraising page! If you have any questions, please email me at emilyc.haller@gmail.com.

Thank you so much for considering being a part of our Third Annual Team for the Colfax Race Weekend!

-Emily