My friend Walter

The Sun-Times did a great piece on Walter Pukala, who I've known for close to 10 years. An avid runner and fitness nut, not to mention a great, funny guy, found out he had prostate cancer. Here's the story: Even health buffs can get prostate cancer - Chicago Sun-Times.

Back when I used to take 5:30 a.m. boot camp classes with my husband at our gym, Walter was one of the instructors. He'd make us sprint laps and joke the entire time, bellowing at us if we wanted to take it easy, we should take yoga.

Walter also was one of the people who inspired me to become a runner. I trained for my first 5k and first sprint triathlons through the gym. I remember one day telling Walter I was thinking about trying to run the Shamrock Shuffle 8K for the first time, I told him that I was thinking about it but nervous that I'd never run that far before (4.97 miles). He was like, hey, you've run 3. You can run 5.

I didn't believe him.

He was right.

I am so, so happy that Walter's doing great. He brightens a lot of people's lives. He's certainly brightened mine.