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There's not much evidence that Tate Gresham, now 6 years old and fully immersed in T-ball and Wii, is a brain tumor survivor. He's doing fantastic, his mother, Chesley, says.

As for the family, there's plenty of evidence of how thankful they are for the medical care and support they received from the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University.

On Saturday, for the fifth straight year, the Greshams will take part in the Angels Among Us 5K and Family Fun Walk in Durham. Team Tate is less than $1,000 from meeting its fundraising goal of $12,000.

The Greshams will be part of an event that included 3,500 participants in 2009 and raised $1.4 million. All proceeds continue to go toward research and clinical trials of brain and spinal tumors at the Tisch Center. This year, 252 teams, including Team Tate, are raising money.

Tate was diagnosed in December 2005. Later that winter, the Greshams heard a promotion on radio about the Angels Among Us event.

"We've got to do this," Chesley Gresham said. "It's a perfect way to thank people who came before us who donated money so that he would be able to have a good outcome. We've got to pay it forward for what happened to us."

Gresham and her husband, Van, raise some of the money at a pig-picking each fall at Virginia Tech. They've asked others to donate to Team Tate rather than buy Christmas presents. And all four in the family, including daughter Camden, 9, will participate Saturday in Durham.

"This Saturday is just so emotional," Chesley Gresham says. "There are so few people that get to walk Saturday as a survivor of a brain tumor. All we can do is to raise this money to help them find a cure so there can be more survivors to walk."

Registration for the 5K will be from 7 to 7:45 a.m. Saturday at Erwin Road and Flowers Drive in Durham. The 5K, through the Duke campus, will begin at 8 a.m. The entry fee on race day is $30 for runners, $25 for walkers and free for ages 12 and younger.

To donate to Team Tate or learn more about the event, go to AngelsAmongUs.org.

Run well with others

If you're running but you're missing the support and camaraderie of friends, Off 'N Running Sports is hosting another of its monthly group runs at 8 a.m. Saturday. Runs will vary by pace and by distance, from two to 20 miles. Snacks and refreshments will be available afterward.

Off 'N Running is at 2201 Joan Ave., Greensboro.

Find a race

Saturday will be a busy day:

* Mosquito Stomp 5K in Jamestown.

* Heart and Sole 5K in Winston-Salem.

* Mebane Dogwood Festival 5K.

* 5K Health Run in Asheboro.

* Earth Day 5K in Martinsville, Va.

Find links to all of those events in the Race Days box on the Running Shorts front page.

Ryan Carroll's N.C. ties

Turns out that Ryan Carroll, the runner who took a wrong turn in the half-marathon in High Point in March, has college ties to North Carolina.

The Portsmouth, Va., runner became well-known here after he missed the half's turnaround mark and decided to complete the full 26.2-mile course at the North Carolina Marathon. Carroll crossed the finish line first, but was disqualified for completing a race he did not enter.

Carroll began his college career in Wilson at Barton College, according to a profile in the Virginian-Pilot last week. He won every conference race and earned Scholastic All-America, then decided to transfer to East Carolina.

"My downfall," he told the Pilot's Lee Tolliver. "In hindsight, I should have stayed at Barton. At ECU, running was my priority, not academics."

Carroll transferred to James Madison, then to Old Dominion, where he finished bachelor's and master's degrees before joining an environmental engineering company where his father worked.

Contact Eddie Wooten at 373-7093 or eddie.wooten@news-record.com