Rhonda Foulds has spent years chasing finish lines. These days, she is chasing time on her own terms.

Foulds, 34, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease after losing much of her mobility. She told WFAA there was a point when, “I literally could barely walk from the couch to the kitchen.”

For years, she had run toward milestones, including a first marathon and then another finish line she once thought would be her last.

“But I thought I never wanted to do it again,” she told WFAA with a laugh.

After deep brain stimulation surgery restored her movement, running became part of her recovery. What started as therapy became something much bigger for her.

“Fighting for what feels good is the best thing you can do for yourself,” Foulds said.

By 2020, she had completed 100 marathons. The races carried weight after Parkinson’s had changed her daily life, and running had helped her get back to something she thought she had lost.

Then, in October 2024, a routine check of her implanted brain stimulator led to another diagnosis.

“Ovarian cancer,” she says to WFAA. “And lung cancer.”

The cancer had already spread. Foulds said doctors found tumors on her liver and sternum, and cancer in her bones.

“I was depressed and anxious about it… and then I thought, you know, why not try to fight it?” she said.

Foulds has spoken plainly about what the diagnosis means to her and what she wants from the time ahead.

“I don’t want to die. I just want to be good up to the very end,” she said.

She has also kept hold of the outlook that has carried her through Parkinson’s and cancer. Speaking about how she approaches her illness, Foulds said, “You can always look for the bad. But it’s so much better if you look for the good, regardless of what life is like.”

Chemotherapy disrupted her plans to train. Faced with that, she made a decision about what she wanted to do next.

“I’m not saying I’ll give up chemo forever, just for now, because I want to run Boston,” she said.

For Foulds, the Boston Marathon is not about a finishing time, a placing or even a medal. According to the source text, she is choosing how to spend her time, and running Boston is one of the things she wants to do. She also has other goals, including a jump off the cliffs in Wyoming.

The physical challenge is also different now. Foulds plans to run the Boston Marathon with one lung after losing the other in her fight with cancer.

“This has been the hardest thing I’ve ever been through,” she says. “But I’m gonna do it.”

Her focus has shifted away from counting results. After years of measuring progress in miles and marathons, she has stopped counting in the same way.

“We’re all gonna go one day,” she says. “I’m not afraid to die.”

Foulds has learned that the hardest part is not always the end of a race. For her, it is the decision to begin, even when she knows the cost.

“Keeping the faith,” she says softly, “that everything is gonna be good.”