... he was only 52. I met him six years ago, he was dying at the time and knew it.
After I dropped a ton a weight and started running, I started thinking about marathons. Like many of us, I received a junk mailing from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team In Training. Because my Dad had died of leukemia recently, I went to the meeting and did my first marathon with them,as well as many more. It was through TNT that I met Al.
Back then, in 2000, Al was in remission from his blood cancer, had started running and recently completed the R'n'R Marathon with TNT. His experience alone was a huge motivator, but his attitude toward life and running was what influenced those around him more than anything. Throughout his ordeal, you NEVER heard a single word of complaint from Al. He was always the most cheerful, positively optimistic person around. In a sport where we tend to focus on the aches and pains and hardships, tend to use them as excuses, Al never voiced a negative thought, never had anything but encouraging words for everyone, while dismissing his hardships with barely a shrug.
All of us have an 'Al' story, since he inspired so many of us. Mine probably won't mean much to anyone but an endurance athlete, but allow me to share it here.
In 2003, Al signed up, along with a fairly large local group, for the Marine Corps Marathon, which would be his fourth. Once we were well into our training, Al had a relapse, with the accompanying weakness and inevitable round of chemotherapy. He made it through all that, and got his doctor's OK to run the marathon. That year's version was brutally hot, I finished in 4:26, well off my PR, but remember passing hundreds of walkers on the 14th Street Bridge who just couldn't run up there in the heat. Al struggled through it but ran most of the way and just sneaked in under five hours.
Two weeks later, I headed for the Baton Rouge Beach Half Marathon. All the way up there I was thinking about how I was doing too much, that I needed to recover rather than race again, that I really didn't want to do this. We got there and walked up to the packet pickup, and the first person we see is Al, warming up. Trying and failing to hide my astonishment, that he had gone through all that he had, then run a marathon and come back for more, I asked, "Al, what are you doing here?" He answered in his usually cheery fashion, "Where else do I have to go?"
Yeah, it's not that great a story, but sure inspired the heck out of me. Anyway, Al lived for running, triathlons as well. Our biggest local running event is this weekend, The Cajun Cup 10K, I've heard that Al was even registered for the race. We're planning a pre-race commemeration, TNT singlets with black armbands, might even try to get the RD to dedicate the race to Al. Probably the least we can do to remember the runner who touched so many lives.