Lung Distance Runners

Well, we might not have been the fastest ones (we came in 157th) and my average pace of a 12+ minute mile on my 3rd leg of the 199 mile relay certainly didn't help but this was far more than just going through some muscle sour...

We made the 3rd place in raising awareness for Organ Donation and


and were in the same starting wave as Team Dean (how on earth someone can run 50 marathons in 50 days is beyond imagination?)

...but this would not have been the experience if it wasn't for Rich.



Rich found out about his lung situation 13 years ago. At the time, he was training for a triathlon. On a typical run one day, he struggled to make it to the top of a hill. Of course, as any athlete would think, “I’m just having a bad day”. He continued to train over the next year, but found that more and more often, he just struggled with things that he didn’t feel he should be struggling with. He was starting to have a hard time just walking up several flights of stairs.

Finally he decided to go see a doctor. They ran the tests and determined that he had Pulmonary Fibrosis and would need a lung transplant within 5 years to continue living. Of course, that was 13 years ago, and up until 2 months ago, his vitals had stayed at a level that kept him off of the transplant list. Medical doctors from around the world have been studying him, as life expectancy with Pulmonary Fibrosis after 5 years is rare. He was definitely an anomaly. A damn good one at that.

About 2 months ago, his vitals had reached a point where doctors felt it was time to put him on the actual transplant list. He has been on that list doing fairly well, staying calm and positive as only Rich can do. Two weeks ago, the doctors felt that it was time to put him on oxygen 100% of the time. They also wanted him to stay home, as most transplant candidates are not currently working. Of course, Rich wouldn’t hear of it, so has been working with an oxygen supplier to get a tank put in his office, so that he could continue to come to work, which brings us to to the Relay day.

I was about to start for my 2nd leg of the Relay when we got to the breakfast station. That's where I met Rich for the first time in person for a mere 5 minutes before I had to get to the start line.

And if this wasn't inspiration enough less than 7 hours after our last Lung Distance Runner came through the finish line in Santa Cruz, Rich received a phone call from Stanford that some matching lungs were en route...

Some 8h later he was proud owner of new lungs...

Go Lung Rich!!!

Want to donate to Organs 'R' Us?

More pictures of our run?