For 24-year-old Eli Fishbein, running has become much more than a way to stay fit. It’s a source of healing, purpose, and connection, and most importantly, a way to honor his late grandmother, Debbie, who he describes as having been “the salt of the earth.” This October, Eli will take on his second marathon, the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, in his home city and for a cause that now means everything to him: raising funds and awareness for pancreatic cancer through Project Purple.
From Sports to Running: Self-Improvement and Therapy
Growing up in the northwest suburbs of Illinois, athletics were constantly central to his identity. He was a varsity football and baseball player throughout high school, dedicating himself to the discipline, competition, and camaraderie that sports demanded. These formative years instilled a sense of perseverance and a love of challenge that would later shape his approach to running. Yet life during and after college brought a change. With the structure of organized sports behind him, Eli found himself seeking a new form of exercise and self-discipline—something that could push him physically and mentally.
And, two years ago, he found it: running. “I realized how much I loved the competitive nature I was missing since I stopped playing sports in high school,” Eli recalls. Running soon became more than just fitness—it became a source of therapy and a way to reconnect with the mental and physical discipline he had always loved.
Eli describes running as a “personal battle between myself and myself,” a practice that has pushed him to “new heights, mentally and physically.” He remembers starting the process of running seriously two years ago, and says, “if you asked me when I started doing it for real, I never imagined I would be able to run a marathon like I did last year, and I never imagined I’d love it as much as I do.”
His first marathon attempt was the Minnesota Twin Cities Marathon last year, but two days before he was set to leave, his grandfather unexpectedly passed away. He had to be home with family, and the marathon would have to wait. In the wake of this loss, Eli discovered a local race, the Des Plaines River Trail Marathon in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. Running this marathon, through trails and neighborhoods familiar to him, became a milestone—both physically demanding and emotionally resonant.
Running was no longer just about fitness; it had become a space for reflection and honoring memory. “It’s a great way to destress and have some ‘me time,’” he says. The solitude of each run allows him to process both everyday stress and the more profound challenges of life, including the unexpected loss of his grandfather and the loss of his grandmother, Debbie Fishbein.
Debbie: A Life of Care and Courage
Eli’s decision to dedicate his involvement in his second-ever marathon, the 2025 Chicago Marathon, came after a deeply personal experience. His grandmother Debbie, a person Eli describes as having been “everybody’s favorite person,” was his confidante and role model, and one of his best friends. She endured breast cancer in 1985, followed by two separate battles with lymphoma—one of which required a stem cell transplant—before facing her fourth diagnosis, pancreatic cancer. Through each challenge, she demonstrated unwavering courage and strength.
He recalls receiving the devastating phone call during his senior year of college. “I got a call from my dad, and that’s his mom, and he broke the news. It’s not a fun phone call to receive,” Eli remembers. Only a few months later, she passed away, marking Eli’s first experience with significant loss, and then a year later, his grandfather passed, as well. “I’m very lucky. I have, for the most part, a very healthy family. I grew up without experiencing loss. And then in the last two years, two of my best friends and supporters have been taken. It’s been an interesting and crazy journey,” he reflects. The loss of Debbie and her husband, Kenny, in such close succession forced Eli to confront grief in ways he had never before encountered.
As much as it would have been easy to “hate the world” after four cancer diagnoses, Debbie remained selfless and focused on others. “As long as everyone else was fine, and everyone else was happy, she was happy.” Even in her last moments, Eli’s grandmother was constantly calling her grandchildren and asking about each of their days. “It was never about her, which was how she was in her life,” he reflects. “And she didn’t even flinch, even with this diagnosis.”
Debbie’s generosity extended far beyond family, as well. She was a pillar of her community, helping friends, neighbors, and various charities with tireless dedication. “Once I decided I wanted to run a marathon, the first thing that came to mind was ‘Can I do this in honor of my grandmother?’” Eli notes. “I thought the very least I could do for a woman who spent 77 years helping everyone else out, making sure everyone was okay, and just being there for everybody, was to raise money for a cause and for a person that meant and means so much to me.” Her life was one of continuous giving, compassion, and courage, leaving an enduring legacy that continues to shape Eli’s values and running purpose.
Training, Chicago, and Project Purple
Training for the Chicago Marathon has been an intense, transformative experience for Eli, but he credits it to why he fell in love with running. “Some days are easy, some days are eh, and some days are so hard,” he notes. “I think a lot of it is just random, but I think it correlates with life itself so much. And that’s why I love it.” Every long run becomes a meditation on resilience, where Eli reflects on his grandmother’s courage and the adversities she faced.
Debbie’s determination in the face of repeated cancer diagnoses inspires Eli to push during difficult stretches. “Whenever I have a tough run or whenever I’m struggling on a run, the first thing that pops up into my head is what I’m doing for my grandmother, and thinking about all the things she went through and how she carried herself,” he mentions. “What’s an extra two miles?”
Eli “feels her in it all” when it comes to training. His grandmother, he explains, was the kind of person who “wouldn’t hurt a fly,” but at the same time, she was strong as hell. And she kicked ass.” That quiet strength, wrapped in kindness, has become his model. “I try to train the way that she lived life,” he says. “Which was whenever you feel like crap or you get knocked down, you fight back.”
The decision to run the Chicago Marathon was deliberate. The race offers a stage to celebrate his roots in the Windy City, surrounded by the streets and neighborhoods that he knows and the support from family and friends. And, unlike the smaller scale of the Des Plaines River Trail Marathon, Chicago is an opportunity to be a part of the excitement and energy surrounding one of the Majors.
Partnering with Project Purple after finding the organization through a quick search on the internet added another layer of purpose, connecting his personal experience to a larger mission. Eli views this partnership as a way to turn his personal loss into action, using each mile to honor his grandmother while helping others affected by the illness.
Race day, then, will be both a physical and emotional milestone. Drawing from his marathon experience last year, Eli says, “training is really where I grew as a person and as an athlete, but the race day is almost like the celebration.” It’s the culmination of months of preparation, but it is also an act of remembrance of Debbie’s life.
Crossing that finish line with his friends and family watching, and knowing his Poppy and Grammy are watching from above, “means everything” to Eli. In a broader sense, he feels finishing those 26.2 miles is a symbol of hope and, as Eli puts it, “an extra step for hopefully curing this terrible disease.”
Running Through Grief, Running Toward Hope
Grief, Eli has learned, cannot be rushed or easily contained. Running provides a structure in which to confront it—transforming sorrow into determination and loss into action. He stresses the importance of community during this process. “My advice would be to lean on each other. I am very, very, very lucky to have such an amazing support system and people I can count on, and people that can count on me. So, if you have that, lean on each other, and know you are never alone,” he advises. Even for those without a close personal support system, Eli notes that Project Purple offers a community that can empathize and provide support throughout the journey of grief.
That support, along with a mindset rooted in gratitude, has carried him through the hardest moments. At first, Eli admits it was easy to be angry—angry at the unfairness of losing such a kind, resilient woman, someone who had already endured so many challenges, yet never stopped showing up for others. But, over time, gratitude began to reshape his grief. “I’ve taken on a mindset of, ‘How lucky am I that losing someone hurts so bad,’” he reflects. “I’ve found a lot of healing in the gratitude of knowing how special of a legacy she left behind, and how special it is to feel the emotion of grief.”
Through his partnership with Project Purple, Eli hopes to help more people understand the devastating reality of pancreatic cancer, while also fueling hope for a future without it. “There’s so much power in community and hope,” he explains. “If I could do one thing, it would be to wipe pancreatic cancer out of the world. And I think by raising money and raising awareness, we continue to inch closer and step closer to hopefully ending the battle with the cancer itself.”
Eli has already seen what that community can do. Surpassing his fundraising goal has been both humbling and affirming, and he feels so grateful to be in a position where he can help fight the disease. “My grandma was a very, very, very amazing and special person to so many people,” Eli reflects, “so it’s no surprise that the number is where it is, because everyone who knew her and has seen the page has donated. Because I guarantee you, those people who knew her and donated, there was a time in their life where they needed a shoulder to cry on or a friend to talk to, or even just a lunch date—and my grandma was right there.”
Looking to the future, Eli knows his journey of advocacy isn’t ending when the marathon does. Running will always be a powerful way for him to honor his grandmother’s life and raise awareness, but he is eager to find more ways to contribute to the fight. “I will continue to run for her because it is such a powerful way to honor her and raise money for a great cause,” he says, “but I want to do more, even more than that, and that’s something I need to research and find.”
Thus, the 26.2 miles he is running in October will be a continuation of his grandmother’s legacy—her strength, her love, and her fierce commitment to others—carried forward in every stride. With each step, Eli hopes to bring the world closer to a day when no family has to endure the pain of losing someone they love to pancreatic cancer.
To support Eli’s run in honor of Debbie and to help raise awareness for pancreatic cancer, donate to his fundraising page here.
If you’d like to run or participate in an event of your own for Project Purple, visit our events page.
