A ‘Beer Dash’ for cancer support in Davis

On Wednesday night, a crowd of blue t-shirt clad athletes of all ages waited for their signal at the start line of a foot race. The race started in the parking lot of Super Owl Brewing in Davis — and ended on the other side.

All 26.2 meters of the race, a play on the 26.2 miles of a full marathon, could be contained in the lot right in front of the brewery. The prize for adults of drinking age was an ice-cold beer. The kids got to keep the t-shirts.

The event was held by Cancer Champions, a nonprofit in Yolo County that supports cancer patients with fitness, nutrition, mindset and community. The nonprofit was founded by Jennifer Miramontes, whose journey with cancer support started with losing her father to cancer, and in 2001, her mother was diagnosed with cancer as well.

Miramontes said she did everything she could to support her mother, but at a certain point, her doctors told her there wasn’t much she could do.

“There was a point where her doctors said she was not going to make it. She had about three months to live,” Miramontes said. “So I said, ‘Do you have a bucket list item?’ and she said she did. She wanted to hike in and out of the Grand Canyon.”

Miramontes has been a fitness trainer her whole life, and helped train her mother to cross off that last bucket list item.

“She did it, she hiked in and out of the Grand Canyon and actually lived three years past her diagnosis,” Miramontes said. “That was the lightbulb moment of, I need to do more with this. I need to be able to support other people that are going through this journey.”

The event was held to promote and register runners for the organization's Moonlight Run, which takes place on July 18. The run will help fund the nonprofit’s specialized care programs for each patient, where they help form nutrition and exercise regimens for each patient’s need.

“If it’s somebody that’s deconditioned and dizzy, we might say we have some chair exercises that you can do seated,” Miramontes said. “We meet people where they are, we don’t tell them, ‘This is what you have to do.’”

Wendy Miller, one of the board members for Cancer Champions, said that she’s been involved with the organization since the beginning. Initially, Miramontes was just her trainer and friend. 

“It’s a labor of love. We have people all across this nation that are on the board, and we meet and strategize, do everything we can to continue bringing awareness,” Miller said.

In fact, according to Miramontes, while they’re based in Yolo county, they‘ve helped people all around the world. Cancer Champions has worked with patients from Uganda, France, Argentina and Mexico. Miller said that the pursuit of better cancer treatment is a unifying force.

“We all know somebody or have been touched by cancer,” Miller said. “It’s just something that every single person regardless of political party, gender, race, it affects each and every one of us. To have a commonality that we can all come together, especially at a time where our country can be divided, is a pretty cool thing.”

The Moonlight Run will take place at 1260 Lake Blvd in Davis from the Super Owl Brewing parking lot, and interested runners can sign up anytime until the run starts, and can sign up for a Beer Dash as well as 10 mile, 10K, 5K and 2K runs.