Kelly Gilblom and Jessee Rouse didn’t go out last Friday night. Instead, they had to be in bed early, because the UW students had to be at Gas Works Park at 8 a.m. to run for 70 minutes. Not a typical weekend for most college students.

Gilblom and Rouse are working with Team in Training, a national charity sports training program that raises money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, to train for the Big Sur International Marathon on April 25. The two friends tried to run a marathon a couple of years ago but claimed it was an utter failure. This time, though, they have lots of motivation.

“When I was a kid, my sister was diagnosed with leukemia. No one had ever survived her diagnosis before, so she should have died,” Gilblom said. “It was about three years of treatment that she went through. Treating cancer is really expensive, and really time-consuming and exhausting, but she survived because technology advanced while she was sick. But while she was sick, someone actually ran a Team in Training marathon in her honor, so it was the exact same program that I’m doing now. It was kind of like coming full circle for me to join.”

Each participant of the Team in Training group that Gilblom and Rouse are part of has to raise $4,300 by April 2, so the two students put together a fundraising event that they hope will attract lots of college students.

The event will be held this Friday at Dante’s bar, starting at 8 p.m. There’s no cover charge, but those who donate $10 will receive VIP treatment, which means unlimited access to a food buffet, games like beer pong, foosball, and Wii, and discounted drinks. The fundraiser will also feature a live auction with prizes that include Sounders tickets and a football signed by Jake Locker.

“You don’t really hear [of] many people in college doing this kind of thing,” Rouse said. “It’s nice to combine the social aspects of college with something that’s actually positive and going to help other people.”

Besides this big event, Rousse has been using her artistic talents to raise money, which she is calling “Capture lives to save lives.” In this endeavor, people pay her to realistically draw a favorite photo, which they can then frame.

“Just this team will raise $61,000 this year,” said Bonnie Brooks, a Team in Training coordinator and former participant. “The money will fund research, financial aid for patients, education and advocacy … It’s really positive because it raises funds, but it’s also life affirming.”

Team in Training not only helps members with fundraising efforts, but it also provides a strict regimen for the participants to follow to ensure that they will succeed at the time of the marathon. Gilblom and Rouse, along with the other members of their team, began running for short increments of time in October. As of right now, they are running individually 40 to 50 minutes three days a week; 70 minutes — which will eventually become three hours — on Saturdays when the whole team gets together for a group run; and a 30-minute recovery run on Sundays.

Team members even ran during winter break, when Gilblom said it was a struggle to run because all she wanted to do was rest, but luckily for her — or not — her parents are so committed to her finishing the marathon that they woke her up at 7 a.m. every day to run.

“The thing is, everyone has a story. Everyone knows someone who has had cancer or has had it themselves,” Gilblom said. “Sometimes it really is hard to get up and run, and sometimes it’s miserable outside, but you really are like giving someone their sister back or their mom back.”

Reach reporter Lael Telles at news@dailyuw.com.