( Mental Floss ) -- For a serious distance runner , 7 hours , 48 minutes is not a great marathon time . But cut Brian Fugere some slack . He 'd been diagnosed with synovial sarcoma -- a rare soft-tissue cancer -- in his lung . He was in his fourth cycle of chemotherapy . And he was dragging an IV pole for all 26.2 miles . Oh , and this marathon was taking place in a hospital hallway . When Brian Fugere started coughing up blood in February 2005 , he was an active 47-year-old who jogged regularly and once finished the Boston Marathon in a respectable 3 hours , 19 minutes . Life was good for the father of four and senior partner with consulting giant Deloitte in San Francisco , California . He had recently gained a small but devout following after co-authoring `` Why Business People Speak Like Idiots '' with Chelsea Hardaway and Jon Warshawsky , a book that espoused the benefits of straight talk . He appeared on cable news shows and wrote op-ed pieces , and his work was the subject of a clue on `` Jeopardy ! '' Then came the news nobody is prepared to hear . `` I have been diagnosed with a form of cancer called synovial sarcoma , '' Fugere wrote friends and colleagues in 2005 . `` Although this usually shows up in and around the joints , mine appears to be in my lung . I am having surgery to remove my lower left lobe , where the tumor has hunkered down . We 're going in for a full assault . '' The assault began at UCSF Medical Center , where doctors removed Fugere 's lung-lobe as planned . Next up : chemotherapy at Kaiser Walnut Creek Hospital . The Box of Chocolates Marathon . When he first drifted into the oncology floor hallway , he did n't set out to complete a marathon . Originally he was just trying to keep himself from going stir crazy during chemo , which came with a few complications , including a blood clot , pneumonia and anemia . Fugere had been reading Lance Armstrong 's `` It 's Not About the Bike : My Journey Back to Life , '' which stressed how important it was to `` keep moving . '' `` So , I started moving , '' Fugere said . `` I did one , then two , then three , then four , then five laps . Then I started measuring the distance of a lap around the cancer ward and figured out it would take 144 laps to do a marathon . `` So then I figured , why not ? '' Fugere called his hallway odyssey the `` Box of Chocolates Marathon , '' borrowing a line from Forrest Gump . ( `` Life is like a box of chocolates . You never know what you 're gon na get . '' ) `` I want to show other chemo patients that you do n't have to accept the notion of lying in bed all day getting liquid Drano pumped into you , '' Fugere said the week of the marathon . `` Well , you do need to get the liquid Drano -- you just do n't need to take it lying down . '' When friends , colleagues and hospital staff members learned of the marathon , they wanted to help . Many wrote or called to offer their support . Some walked alongside Fugere , and lots of people opened their wallets . Those 144 laps raised $ 42,000 for the Sarcoma Foundation of America . His feat even landed him in Sports Illustrated 's `` Faces in the Crowd '' that October . Keep moving , indeed . Five years later , Fugere is cancer free . But he 's continued to heed Lance Armstrong 's advice . In April 2009 , Fugere and a friend ran the American River 50 Mile Endurance Run in Sacramento , California . They dubbed their performance `` The Running of the Fools '' and raised $ 31,600 for sarcoma research . And earlier this month , he entered the Vermont 100 Mile Endurance Race . `` I am attempting to win the 'Over 50 , Missing One Lung Lobe ' category , '' he joked before the event . It took him 23 hours , 45 minutes , but he finished . After the race , Fugere was too tired to talk about the future . But there 's little doubt whatever he has planned will make the rest of us exhausted when he does tell us . For more mental_floss articles , visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright , Mental Floss LLC . All rights reserved .
Brian Fugere was an active 47 year old before being diagnosed with cancer . While hospitalized he was inspired by a book so he walked the hallways . Later that year he did 144 laps around the hospital -- 26.2 miles -- to raise funds for charity . Fugere continues to run and raise money for sarcoma research .