Runners and walkers filled the streets of downtown Phoenix and circled Chase Field Monday for the 13th annual Diamondbacks and Dignity Health 5K Race Against Cancer, turning a three-mile course into a shared act of remembrance and hope for families touched by the disease. Some carried the memory of people they had lost. Others ran to honor a fight still being fought.
A Course Built On Personal Stakes
The Arizona Diamondbacks Foundation race, presented by Dignity Health, drew community members who covered three miles through downtown Phoenix and around the ballpark, according to FOX 10 Phoenix. Proceeds from the event went toward cancer research, treatment programs and health screenings across Arizona, the station reported. Runners of all backgrounds lined up not just to log miles, but to mark private battles playing out in their own families.
Among them was Annette Mendez, a breast cancer survivor who told the station her son died from colon cancer in April. Despite that loss, she urged others to get screened and to use the health resources available to them, a message that echoed the event's broader purpose of steering people toward early detection.
Survivors, Grandmothers And First-Timers
Justin Miller ran the race for the first time alongside his daughter, telling the outlet that his own family has experienced cancer and lost loved ones to it. Malachi McCormick said he took part because his grandmother has breast cancer, a reason that placed him among a crowd of participants running not for personal fitness goals but for people they love. Donovan Sullivan, who has run the race twice, said the event is for a good cause and that participants show up excited to be there.
Dr. Douglas Ross said the race lets people show support against cancer while including loved ones, survivors and patients side by side on the same course. He added that the event grows every year and demonstrates that the community can fight cancer together, a sentiment that organizers have leaned on since the race's earliest years at Chase Field.
Screenings Remain The Event's Core Message
The emphasis on early detection tracks with federal health guidance. Medical authorities advise that people ages 45 to 75 should be screened for colorectal cancer, with options including a colonoscopy every ten years or stool-based tests, according to MedlinePlus. Not every cancer benefits from routine screening in the same way — the CDC notes that screening for ovarian, pancreatic, prostate, testicular and thyroid cancers has not been shown to reduce deaths from those cancers, underscoring why events like Sunday's race often pair fundraising with direct guidance on which tests actually save lives.
This year's race followed the same format as the 2025 edition, which also began and ended at Chase Field in downtown Phoenix on a Sunday in late September, according to event listings from 4peaksracing.com. That prior race had offered early registrants a free upper-level ticket to a Giants-Diamondbacks game, a perk tied to the ballpark's late-season homestand. Whether similar incentives applied to this year's race was not detailed in available race materials.
For families like Mendez's, the mile markers along downtown Phoenix's streets carried more weight than any finishing time. Her call for others to get screened, paired with stories from Miller, McCormick and Sullivan, reflected a race built less around competition than around communal grief and resolve — one more lap for a cause that, as Ross put it, keeps drawing a bigger crowd every year.
