For months, packages of bras have been showing up at Russ Keeler’s door in Kingston.
They’re not for his wife, and they’re not a prank — they’re for Keeler to wear as he runs the Steamtown Marathon this Sunday.
“Sunday morning, 50 bras are going to be strapped on,” he said during an afternoon training session at Kirby Park. “The gun is going to go off. I’m going to cross the start line.”
If Keeler crosses the finish line within six hours and with all 50 bras still strapped in place, he will set a new Guinness World Record: most bras worn by a male runner in a marathon.
And if all goes well, he’ll donate $1,500 to Think Pink Mountain Top to help local women pay for cancer treatment.
“Marathons take on a life of their own once the gun goes off,” Keeler said. “I want to get to the finish. I’m pretty stubborn.”
A lifelong champion for cancer research
This is not Keeler’s first marathon, nor is it his first time running for a cause. He’s run the Pittsburgh marathon for the American Cancer Society and the New York City marathon for Allied Services.
He’s worked with the American Cancer Society and Relay for Life for 20 years, and has done plenty of “crazy” things to raise money for research and services.
On Sunday, he’ll wear the logo of Think Pink Mountain Top, a foundation that started as a Relay for Life team to support member Danielle Cavanaugh as she went through breast cancer treatment.
Before she passed away, founding member Kim Davis said Cavanaugh proposed becoming a separate nonprofit foundation to support women in Luzerne County directly.
They became a 501(c)3 before Cavanaugh passed away. Davis said fundraisers like Keeler’s will go a long way toward supporting their mission. They provide direct financial assistance to women going through chemotherapy in Luzerne County.
“We've given out for co-pays … rent, gas cards,” she said. “You name it, anything they need during their time trying to…go through all this.”
Davis said Keeler is a longtime supporter of Think Pink Mountain Top.
“He has been at every event … he’s been on every bus, crawl, anything we pretty much ever have done, he’s been there dressed all in pink,” she said. “When he told me what he wanted to do, I was just like, of course you do. I wasn’t even remotely shocked.”
In his years of supporting Relay for Life, Keeler has met survivors and become friends with numerous people living with cancer. But he has a personal connection with breast cancer survivors in particular. His grandmother had breast cancer when he was a teenager.
“I was 14, maybe 15 when she passed away,” he said. “At that time, we knew she had cancer… but it wasn’t something that was talked about at the table.”
Keeler is 54 now. He often thinks about how different his grandmother’s life would have been with all of the advancements in cancer treatment he has seen and helped to fund.
“All the different research … the treatments, the research, early detection, everything has gotten so much better that more women are beating it and surviving longer,” he said.
Guinness World Record idea came from NYC runner
When Keeler ran the New York City marathon with Allied Services last year, he heard about a runner named Brady McDonald who was somewhere on the course wearing 23 bras in an attempt to set a record.
“I was like, 23? I can do more than 23,” he said.
McDonald didn’t set the record that day, but he inspired Keeler to reach out to Guinness World Records himself. He raised the stakes and said he’d wear 36 bras in the next New York City marathon.
“Guinness got back to me and said, well, it’s going to be 50,” Keeler said.
Because no record exists, Keeler said Guinness World Records set the parameters. He needs to wear 50 unmodified, regular bras — with two separate straps rather than a racerback sports bra — throughout the entirety of any marathon.
He decided to run the Steamtown Marathon so his friends, family and supporters could watch his attempt in person.
On Sunday, he’ll arrive early so that his daughters can help him put on all 50 bras before heading to the starting line.
“All of them were donated from friends, family and people all across the country, they’ve come from everywhere,” he said.
He was able to add extenders to the backs of the bras, and he’s numbered each one in the order that he’ll put them on. Guinness World Records wants him to take a selfie at each mile marker of the marathon course to ensure all 50 stay in place throughout his run.
“The one I have that’s going to be the very last one is enormous, like I barely had to put one extension on it,” he said.
Helping after the run is done
Keeler said he originally wanted people to sponsor each bra, but when he started talking about his idea on social media, the donations of bras started flooding in. He created a GoFundMe page instead, and anyone who wants to support his run and Think Pink Mountain Top can donate toward his $1,500 goal.
When the marathon is over, he’ll donate the bras to Pink Smile Promise, an organization that provides women in Ocho Rios, Jamaica with free mammograms and pap smears.
“I have about another 60 or 70 that aren’t even going to be used, they’re just sitting in a box,” Keeler said. “So they’re going to get like, 100 bras when it’s all said and done.”
If he crosses the finish line and sets the record, Keeler says this will be the second craziest thing he’s ever done to raise money for cancer care — the first will still be climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania near the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m out there to help anybody. I’ll do anything,” he said. “I’m at that point where, if you ask me to come and I can do it, I’m going to do it.”
