Attendee runs marathon, hits show floor

SAN DIEGO There were a number of healthcare and wellness-focused Marketplace attendees this year at the National Association of Chain Drug Stores' conference who took advantage of the Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego Marathon, which benefits the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The marathon was held Sunday morning across San Diego long before Marketplace attendees began filling the walkways of the show floor.

One of those runners was cancer survivor Kenneth Todd, beauty buyer for Food Lion, who finished 3,402 among more than 30,000 runners, completing the 26-mi. course in four hours and 39 minutes. Todd started training for his first marathon in 2006, the year carcinoid cancer claimed one of his lungs. His doctor told him that about the only thing he couldn’t  do was run a marathon, so Todd, along with a close group of Food Lion colleagues, ran his first 26-miler in March 2007. Many of those Food Lion colleagues still run with Todd today.

“[My colleagues and I] run a Blue Ridge relay every year in December,” Todd told Drug Store News, just before heading out to the Gaslamp District to “carb up” the night before the marathon. “There’s a team of 12 that go — the lion’s share of those guys are Food Lion associates that go with us.”