CureDuchenne IN THE NEWS

AMELA LEBLANC: FIT CITY
Three cheers for 3M Half Marathon runners
(me included)

By Pamela LeBlanc
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Monday, January 21, 2008

I've never thought of myself as a runner, so I can't believe I'm saying this: I'm entering the 3M Half Marathon. If you'd told me a year and a half ago I'd ever run more than five miles at a stretch, I'd check your forehead for fever. Swim across a lake, bike over a mountain range, slalom water ski before work, yes. But run? Nah.

Next Sunday, I'll run 13 miles.

The change came in January 2007, when I signed up for a training class to prepare for the American-Statesman Capitol 10,000. I figured as fitness writer, I ought to at least try it and completed the race in 62 minutes. In the process, I got hooked on running.

I built up to seven miles last spring, then backed off a wee bit during the heat of the summer. One day, one of my running buddies gently suggested a half-marathon. I let the idea slosh around a bit before I tentatively agreed. In the fall, we started increasing our mileage.

Then I got injured. Midway through an easy five-miler one morning, something popped in my calf. I wasn't doing anything exotic, just running slowly in a straight line on a flat surface. I hobbled back to my office, put a bag of ice on the calf and figured it would be fine in a day or two.

It wasn't. Turns out it was a torn calf muscle. It took nine weeks before I could run again, and I figured I was so far behind on my training schedule that I couldn't possibly run the half-marathon. I had just 10 weeks before the race.

Amazingly, it came back. I started slow and increased my distance by a mile every week. The week I ran eight miles straight, I knew I was going to be able to do the half.

I no longer dreaded running. Or, more specifically, I loved hashing over the nitty-gritty details of life with my running partner, Marcy, while pushing through those long runs. And I craved that pleasantly tired feeling after we were finished.

Wish me luck Sunday. The race starts near the Arboretum and ends downtown. Better yet, go out and cheer for everybody doing the race. We'll appreciate the boost.

A father's inspiration

Some folks have monumental reasons for running. Among them is Tim Revell, 34, who will run the AT&T Marathon on Feb. 17 for his son Timothy, a 4-year-old with a rare form of muscular dystrophy called Duchenne's.

Duchenne's causes muscular deterioration, mainly in young boys. Muscle cells die and don't regenerate. Typically, boys with Duchenne's start walking later than healthy children. Historically, by the time they are 6 or 7, they can't walk. (Steroids have extended the quality of life for some patients into their teens.) The disease is always fatal.

Timothy didn't start walking until he was 20 months old. Doctors, worried by his poor muscle tone, did blood tests and eventually diagnosed him with Duchenne's.

Revell and wife Laura wept. "You can't breathe. You can't think. It's hard to pray. It's hard to focus," Revell says.

He ran to cope. And he decided he'd do everything he could to help families who will be affected by the disease in the future.

Looking at Timothy, you probably wouldn't realize he was ill. The only outward sign is his bulging calf muscles. That's because as the muscles deteriorate, they swell and stiffen in place. The Revells stretch Timothy's muscles nightly to slow the progression of tightness. Other than that, Timothy is a fireball.

"Our son is 4," Revell says. "He's got maybe 10 years of really good life. It's going to be pretty much downhill from there."

Other families have a future, dreams of college and beyond. "With our son, we have none of that. It's not that we don't hope. We hope for the best and prepare for the worst. But we have no idea of the timetable. We take every single day as a gift," Revell says.

The Revells' younger son, Andrew, 1, has shown no signs of the disease.

On Feb. 17, Revell will don a green satin cape to run the AT&T Marathon as a CureDuchenne Crusader. He hopes to raise awareness about the disease and money for CureDuchenne, a California-based nonprofit that funds research to find a cure. The nonprofit is part of the Austin marathon's "26 Miles for 26 Charities" program this year. Organizers hope to raise a collective $2.6 million for 26 charities.

To donate to CureDuchenne, go to www.cureduchenne.org. If you want to join Revell in running the marathon for Timothy, e-mail him at tim@cureduchenne.org or call 789-5936.

Link to austin360.com Article: CLICK HERE