Good afternoon Dr Horton,
I wanted to thank you for an unbelievable experience last
weekend. It was great for me in so
many ways and really closed a chapter for me that began when I was in the
hospital recovering from Renal Cell Carcinoma, Kidney Cancer. I will tell you that trail running literally
saved my life and Trail Running magazine was the catalyst.
Two years ago I was on a business trip and saw Trail Runner and it looked
like an amazing magazine so I bought it and subscribed.
I vowed to do a trail ultra and get away from road marathon pounding.
I had run 12 marathons and wanted a change
At the end of 2003 I signed up for the Wakely Dam 50k in the
adirondacks, an unsupported race which was nearby from NY City.
I couldn't train on mountains in Brooklyn, but trained by avoiding cabs
and buses on my run home from work in manhattan to brooklyn.
My long training runs were loops around Brooklyn.
Unfortunately, three days before the race I had stomach pain.
Usually I wouldn’t have worried, but with three kids 6 and under and
given I was running 32 miles in the mountains where there were no aid stations
or cross paths to easily walk out, I'd go to the doctors to check it out.
When I explained
to my doc what I was doing she laughed, thought I was a bit nuts but
wanted to be sure it wasnt an appendicitis.
She didn't want me to auger in on some lonely trail when my appendix
exploded. She sent me for an MRI.
What the MRI found was that I had indigestion, probably from eating
massive carbs before running, but randomly on a kidney they found a growth
completely unrelated to the indigestion and pain.
In otherwords, it was completely dumb luck that they found it.
I was cleared to run, but had to come back after the run for
follow-up. I finished the Wakely,
but broke my tibia and hopped 18 miles out of the mountains, --
thats another story. When I
was sufficiently healed from the break they scheduled me for surgery.
I found an amazing team of Docs from Mount Sinai in NY and my last
conversation before going under was with an iron man triathlete anesthesiologist.
It was nice to be around extreme personalities.
Three days later as I was recovering I found out I had renal
cell carcinoma, kidney cancer. This
cancer doesn’t really respond well to anything but surgery, so you either find
it early which is rare or you face a difficult prognosis.
I was blessed to find it early and I truly owe it to trail running,
because this cancer doesnt really show symptoms until late in the game.
Had i not been doing such a bizarre sport, my doc would not have sent me
for an MRI.
As I was recovering in the hospital, I had the trail runner
2004 calendar of runs and I saw a race that just spoke to me.
The Promise Land is where I wanted to go in April 2005.
I had heard of Dr Horton and his legendary runs and I had driven through
the Appalachian mountains with a buddy after a stint in the army in Texas.
So that is where I was going to go come hell or high water. (Both
of which are found on the Promise Land run)
While I was in the hospital, I thought of Scott Jurek running
a 100 miles and used it as motivation to get out of bed with my iv and do laps
around the ward. My docs said
I couldn’t run for 6 weeks and I remember getting a bit emotional as I laced
up and went out the door and for a 2 miler after 4 weeks.
In the ensuing months after I found I had cancer the highs and
lows are profound and I corresponded with amazing people who are cancer
survivors and are truly the toughest people I’ve ever met.
They are truly inspirational.
Running for me smoothed the emotional lows and the promise land gave me a
concrete goal.
In early april I checked the Promise Land participants list
and saw scott jurek's name right above mine on the list and I knew that it was
all going to be ok. It was cool
to see someone whose so inspiring name
above mine and I joked with my friends that it was like playing infield with
Derek Jeter, when your last game was in little league. I will tell you that I met him at the race and the
grace and low ego that he exudes is what is so lacking in other professional
sports. He is a true role model for
the sport. Dr Horton was also
amazing and the heartfelt welcome he gave me and the hug at the race end is what
this sport is all about.
My experience on the the race was terrific and I met great
people-- Dave, Tony, the guy at the apple orchard aid station who put on his NY
city hat my second time through to motivate me. For me it was the best sporting event I had ever done.
I was actually giddy during the race, I don’t know if it was the
getting rid of cancer or the mountain dew.
Thank you for the experience, I felt truly blessed to be in the mountains
with all of you. I’ll be back