On To Other Things...

Twelve months ago, I began this blog to document my efforts to train for and complete the 2008 New York City Marathon. Now, it’s time to formally bring this chapter of my life to a close with a conversation about why I set out to achieve this unusual goal.


November 22, 2008 marked the fifth anniversary of my life threatening battle and recovery from septic shock and multiple organ failure. The painful and tragic memory of that time has never left me. Running the NYC Marathon and cycling multiple 100-mile century rides this fall was my absurdly symbolic way of saying, "I didn't die. I am still alive."

At this point, the details of my illness are of little consequence. I had just started a new job and my youngest daughter was 10 months old. After a tumultuous nine months of unemployment, it seemed like things were finally turning around. With a new baby in the house, free time was at a premium.

I went to work on Friday, November 21, 2003 and felt a little under the weather. Nothing special. Just a cold, I thought. I had just completed my first 100-mile “Century” bike ride just a month earlier and was looking forward to Thanksgiving and New Years.

By Saturday night, I was dying and didn't know it. A bacteria had taken hold of my system. The loss of my spleen in 1986 made me a candidate for infection, but nothing like this had ever happened before. In the wee hours of Sunday morning, November 23, I was rushed to the emergency room where doctors attempted to save my life

For three weeks, while I lay asleep in a coma, my life hung by a thread. My circulatory system, lungs and kidneys had all failed. A ventilator was breathing for me and my blood was cleansed by a dialysis machine every few days as a team of doctors worked tirelessly to save my life.


Forty-two days later I was discharge. The doctors had succeeded and the cost was fairly minor: four toes were amputated in late January. In order to save itself, my body had turned off circulation to my extremities. A small price to pay.


The journey back to life was short. By March I was back at work and by May I was on my bike, completing the 42-mile Five Boro Bike Tour. But a lingering cloud remained. Year after year, I would return to the hospital on November 22 and visit the nurses in the ICU. It was not a pleasant trip. But I could never let it go. My life had been saved in this place. It was hallowed ground.


So, as 2007 came to a close, I knew I needed to do something to mark the fifth anniversary of this unfortunate episode of my life. And the idea to run the NYC Marathon, with no prior experience as a runner, was born.


Looking back now, it truly was an absurd experiment. But after nine NYRR races, three major biking events and the NYC Marathon, this year will come to a close as one of the most amazing years of my life.


And five years after almost dying makes it that much more special.