JEFFERSON TWP — People get into running for different reasons.

Some do it to lose weight. Some do it to relieve stress. Some do it for general health reasons.

For Heidi Wolanin, it’s all of the above and then some.

The 40-year-old Freeport graduate and Ohio Valley General Hospital emergency room nurse has run for her life, in addition to improving it.

“For me to get through the past couple of years? It’s been vital,” Wolanin said.

Never a runner of any type until three years ago, Wolanin decided to begin a 10-week walk-to-run program upon returning from a trip to Jamaica with her husband.

“I was drinking and eating way too much and was disgusted with myself,” she admitted. “Then I saw a story about the Harmony Silvester 5K on New Year’s Eve and decided to sign up for it.”

When she completed the race, Wolanin said “the running bug was born.”

From there, her life took a severe downturn.

The day before Wolanin and her husband were scheduled to leave for another Jamaica trip in May 2011, she learned he died of a heart attack.

Wolanin was already signed up for the Freeport 5K — scheduled only a few weeks after his death — and followed through with it.

“I needed to get out and begin to rebuild my life,” she said.

Finding herself in sudden financial straits, Wolanin credited Mark Courtney and his mother for allowing her to run in the Mercer Quads that summer for free.

She described the camaraderie she feels with other runners as “priceless.”

“They are very supportive people,” Wolanin said. “They always have a kind word ... very, very nice.”

Wolanin needed more of that support last April when she was diagnosed with endometrial cancer, malignancies that arise from the lining of the uterus.

“I was diagnosed April 17, had surgery April 19, started chemotherapy on June 1 — six rounds, one round every three weeks,” she said.

After surgery, Wolanin said she willed herself to do laps around the nurse’s station because “it was either get busy moving or get busy dying.”

“My first race after the surgery was in July in Saxonburg. I didn’t run a fast pace, but I finished and I have (83-year-old) Margretta Lutz to thank for that. I ran behind her much of the race. She is an awesome, inspirational woman.

“She never knew how much she helped me that day, but I was the baldie running behind her much of the time,” Wolanin added.

Wolanin decided she needed more focus in her running, so she signed up for the Buffalo Rails to Trails Half Marathon, slated for the end of October. That meant the bulk of her training had to come while still doing her chemotherapy treatments.

Her 10-week training program consisted of running four days a week, averaging four or five miles per run. Her longest run was 10 miles, just before the half marathon.

She was also taking steroids to battle the cancer and had to train around that.

“You feel great for three days (after a steroid treatment), then you crash for a day or two,” Wolanin said. “You experience shortness of breath and a fast heart rate for a day. I had to work around that.”

She did — and finished the half marathon in two hours, 39 minutes. A month later, she began a stretch of 25 radiation treatments.

And she’s still running.

“I’ve dropped 35 pounds since I’ve been running and I’m sure I’ll drop more,” Wolanin said. “I have no desire to run a full marathon, but running is a part of my life forever now.

“I work 12-hour shifts at night, so I run before I go to work. I have a stressful job and running alleviates a lot of that.”

For two years, Wolanin has competed in road races with no concern about her placement or her official time.

Ed Doyle sold Wolanin her first “real pair” of running shoes, became a good friend and cheered her on during the half marathon.

Doyle owns the Up N’ Running store in Valencia.

“There aren’t many people out there like Heidi,” Doyle said. “She’s had a few tragedies in her life, but she always had that bubbly smile on her face.

“Anytime I get down on myself, I think of her. I’ve got my health and family. Heidi is somebody who doesn’t feel sorry for herself at all. She just goes out and busts her tail. She’s a super person,” he said.

At the Festival of Arts 5K, one male runner whose mother had battled cancer parked his car beside Wolanin’s, finished the race well ahead of her, then came back to run the end of the race again with Wolanin.

“Last year was all about survival for me,” Wolanin said. “You meet so many special people during this journey.”

This year is about getting faster.

“She’s gained some weight from her chemo and her New Year’s resolution is to lose that weight,” Doyle said.

“I have no doubt she will. She is one determined girl,” he added.

Wolanin is registered for the Disney’s Princess Half Marathon in Orlando, Fla., on Feb. 24. It will be her first competition outside of the immediate area.

And she’s training hard for it.

“I’ve learned there are no guarantees in life. We don’t know when we’re going to run out of time,” she said.

“If there’s something fun you want to do and you have the means to do it, then do it.

“That’s why I’m going to Florida, I’m going back to school ... I’m just going for it,” she said.