Community rows marathon to support cancer patient

Miriam Alvarado watches over fellow law enforcement as they row a marathon in support of Alvarado, who has been diagnosed with cancer, at CrossFit SCV on Saturday.
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Members from the CrossFit and law enforcement community banded together on Saturday to help Miriam Alvarado, a single mother of four children who has been diagnosed with cancer.

Twenty-three teams made up of 300 people participated in rowing an entire marathon, 26.2 miles, in support of Alvarado at CrossFit SCV.

“The love and support, it is great,” said Alvarado. “You don’t know how much you’re loved and cared for until something like this happens.”

Around $20,000 has been raised from Saturday’s event, bringing Alvarado’s GoFundMe page to a total of around $35,000.

Curtis Marzinzik, the owner of CrossFit SCV, came up with the idea to row the extreme distance of a marathon.

He says the exercise machine has several preset distances, one of them being a marathon.

“It’s a joke,” he says. “No one ever does it.”

From that joke stemmed the idea to put teams together and row the 26.2 miles.

“The concept is it takes a team to do something that big and it takes a team to fight cancer,” he said.

CrossFit is a form of training that blends many different styles of exercise together such as weightlifting, gymnastics and more to create a work out.

Alvarado has been in the CrossFit community and LAPD for many years, and in response, they are supporting her in her time of need.

One such person was Jonathan Zibli, who rowed the marathon with his team in full police uniform which included a bullet-proof vest, a gun, ammunition, handcuffs and more.

“Coming out and doing this in full uniform is really nothing compared to what she’s gone through,” said Zibli.

Alvarado is completely overwhelmed with the hundreds of people that have come together to help her, some of whom don’t even know her.

“It’s amazing, it’s overwhelming that the love and support that friends, even law enforcement families come out and support in uniform,” said Alvarado. “That there in itself says a lot.”

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