Joshua Ross: From cancer patient to ultra runner
In Episode 24 of the Running Tales Podcast, part of the Everyday Athlete Podcast Network, we interviewed Joshua Ross who overcame leukaemia to become an endurance athlete
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Joshua Ross was diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia in January 2021. It was 800 days - more than two years - before he achieved molecular remission.
But it was during that recovery period that Joshua started running every day - with the aim of hitting 100 in a row.
Once he achieved that goal, running a total of 104 consecutive days, he celebrated by competing in his first ever race.
But it was no local 5km. Instead, Joshua took on The River of No Return Endurance 55k in Challis, Idaho - complete with 10,000 feet of elevation gain.
He not only successfully completed the event in an impressive six-and-a-half hours, but finished first in his age class.
More long-distance events have followed, including a 55-miler, as running became a regular part of his life.
On the podcast, we spoke to Joshua about:
Facing up to cancer and deciding to bet on himself
How running presented a new challenge that allowed him to embrace life again
Using his story to help others take on their illnesses - and come out on top
Finding camerarderie on the trails and tackling the ultra distance
Why his cancer battle means running will never feel like a struggle
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Key points:
Finding meaning through running
Becoming an inspiration is a journey, even when it comes to someone with as uplifting story as Joshua Ross.
When he was told he had cancer, Joshua’s immediate response wasn’t that he would become an ultra runner.
In fact, he was understandably scared as he struggled to deal with the fact of his own mortality. But with time, he used the situation to find new meaning in his life.
“You have no choice but to be in the experience,” he said. “I was preparing to learn how to accept mortality and how to die if that was going to be the case.
“Luckily I got a type of highly treatable leukaemia. Most people diagnosed with this form of the disease end up living a fairly normal life expectancy.
“I really clung to that early on. I was like, ‘okay, I don't know what this means for my everyday life, but at least I have future’.”
Joshua hadn’t been a runner prior to his diagnosis. Although he was a keen gym-goer and no stranger to exercise, he chose a sport he had only previously taken part in casually.
“I turned to running as a way to cope, to ground me in the world and to give my life discipline and meaning.”
The emotion of running 55k and beating cancer
When Joshua finished his first race, The River of No Return Endurance 55k, his immediate feeling was one of exhaustion.
It was only later when he started to realise what he had achieved.
“I was really proud of the effort that I put in, but I was also exhausted what all that I had been navigating,” he said.
“There was a lot of emoting going on. I was spontaneously crying out there, thanking my grandmother who was a really central figure of my life.
“I had been running through the woods, thinking about how she used to mop the floor on her hands and knees. And I was like, ‘man, grandma, you work so much harder than I'm working right now’. And that was motivation for me.
“It was a really emotional experience to go through the race. By the time that it finished, it took me a while to understand what I had done.
“I slept on it and it took me a few days to recover. And that was when I was like, ‘wow, that's impressive, going out there and doing that’.
“It gave me the confidence that I needed to go forward in life and to believe in myself again.”
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