For Iram Leon, The Decker Challenge Half Marathon Holds A Special Place In His Heart

When Iram Leon went to the Decker Challenge half marathon registration table in 2010, just months before receiving life-saving surgery to remove the tumor in his brain, he couldn’t help but laugh with his small bit of misfortune.

The attendant handed him the number 911.

“I said to myself, ‘Are you kidding me?’” Leon said. 

What was the world trying to tell him? 

If he had arrived at the table any earlier, he would have received a different number. Any later, and he also would have received a different number (each new runner in line received the next bib). “It cracked me up,” Leon said. “I went out and ran with it.” 

The moment arrived just a few weeks after he was diagnosed with grade 2 diffuse astrocytoma in his left temporal lobe at the age of 30 – the forever date of November 5, 2010.

It was the type of cancer, Leon said, that was supposed to kill him before the age of 40. 

And to be quite honest, he sort of believed it. The diagnosis was scary enough, in fact, that it forced a crucial decision out of him: Leon put off brain surgery in order to chase after his dream of qualifying for the Boston Marathon.

So first came a biopsy. Next came The Decker Challenge’s hilly 13.1 miles a month later in December.  

“That was the first time I ever won my age group,” said Leon, who moved to Austin officially in 2005. “That was a good sign of things to come.”  

Leon followed with an even bigger quest a few months later, finishing the Austin Marathon in 3 hours, 7 minutes and 34 seconds. What’s more, though, he didn’t tell race organizers of his battle. “I didn’t want anyone’s pity,” he said. 

How Doctors Saved Decker Challenge Race Director Iram Leon’s Life

In March 2011, doctors in Raleigh, North Carolina, removed the tumor in his brain. Leon could only cross his fingers beforehand and pray it went perfectly—the surgery was aimed at a part of his left temporal lobe that controlled his language, memory and motor skills. Any wrong move could have irrevocably changed his life. The scar on the left side of his head reminds him of this fact.

Fifteen years later, though, Leon is alive and kicking. In February of this year the former president of the Austin Runners Club became the race director of the program’s major races in Austin: The Zilker Relays, The Daisy Dash and the Decker Challenge. 

But it’s the Decker Challenge that holds a special place in his heart. That’s because it was the first half marathon he ran before his brain cancer diagnosis. And it was the first race he ran after the life-changing news, too. 

“This is my favorite race in Austin,” he said. 

Leon, who for a time was pushing his young daughter as a single dad in a stroller and winning marathons after cancer surgery–like a true superhero–believes that running saved him. He also believes running continues to keep him alive. 

His brain cancer had a 10-year survival rate of 12-percent. 

Leon is now 45. 

What The The Decker Challenge Race Director Is Doing Today

Iram Leon runs the 2025 Zilker Relays. Photo Credit: Cory Mull/Austin Fiit Magazine

He takes a series of prescription pills every day, but he’s also lived long enough to see his daughter Kiana grow to 18. The side effects are worth it, he says.

Like any cancer survivor, he knows no day is guaranteed once you receive that fateful diagnosis. But that hasn’t stopped him from racing. He learned to re-ride a bike in 2012, then won a marathon in Beaumont the next year pushing Kiana in a stroller (he even eventually ran with his daughter in a stroller at Decker, too).

He ran an 82-mile ultra in 2019, and then went rim-to-rim in the Grand Canyon in 2021. In 2025, he completed a six-day TransRockies stage race, then followed with a 70.3 Ironman in October.

“I often say the past is a bad place to live, no matter how good or bad it is,” Leon said. 

The History Of The Decker Challenge

What’s more important to him now, he says, is reinvigorating a once-great race in Austin. The Decker Challenge first began in 1979 on the roads around Decker Lake in East Austin.

As the running scene hit surging levels in the 90s and 2000s, with runners flocking to Lady Bird Lake and other local road races, registration grew. But in recent years, following a live race cancellation due to COVID in 2020 (although there was a virtual option) and other factors, the race ebbed. 

Leon says he’s always believed in the beauty of Decker, a race that is a true quadzilla, a total-gainz-attack, an elevation monster. It’s the kind of race that will test your heart and your will. His goal is to get this race back to its glory days.

Starting from the Travis County Exposition Center in East Austin, the half marathon veers on to Decker Lake Road before it takes a quick right on Decker Lane, pushing for miles up the county road before it meanders on to a series of byways. The second half offers runners a true test of resilience, with a series of hills that start, stop and then start again. Toward the end of the race, into the final miles, there’s a stark hill, a brilliant ascent that no doubt will be a reminder of the past 13.1 miles. 

But, Leon says, “this is a runner’s race. Unlike other races, there are no spectators out there. You have to be in your head. But that’s part of the challenge.” 

And Leon, as we know, loves a challenge. A runner all his life, Leon was born in the mountains of Chihuahua, Mexico. He went to college in Northern California before settling in Austin in 2005. He’s shown grit, and he’s shown desire. 

Importantly, he’s shown the aptitude to keep going even in the most difficult of odds. 

A Reminder Of The Past, A Nod To The Future

Take this story, for example. For a long time, the former second Dean of Undergraduate studies at the University of Texas, Brent Iverson, invited Leon to speak to a group of students.

Iverson teaches chemistry and biology, so he’s an expert in the way the human body works. 

Maybe it was the chemistry inside Leon’s brain that intrigued him. That it kept him moving and it kept him strong. 

“He’s actually sent me studies,” Leon said. “One of his students sent it to him. It was a case where someone got cancer and then started running. It sort of sparked them again.” 

Leon always met his classes, and he told them how brain cancer was meant to be his eventual death. Only, he added, it was running that saved his life. It’s running, he says, that kept him going. 

And maybe, just maybe, he explained how The Decker Challenge was the key to it all. 

More Information On The Decker Challenge

What: The Decker Challenge Half Marathon

When: December 7

Where: Travis County Exposition Center

How: Registration remains open through race day. Race fees during race week bring the total to $110, but those interested in running can use the code austinfit99 for 10-percent off entry ($99).