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Recently: Running with a story

Posted on June 5, 2008 by Staff

Scott Adams, with his son Tyler in Chapel Hill, before beginning his uber-thon. Photo by Valarie Schwartz.By Valarie Schwartz

After writing a story yesterday about Scott Adams’ quest to run across North Carolina, I hardly slept last night. Phantom aches in my lower torso kept waking me up, making me wonder if I shouldn’t be encouraging him in my writing to just run as far as Chapel Hill and the arms of his loving wife and son and call it a day, then spend the next year raising money and awareness about cancer before finishing the run to the coast.

He’s been running across the mountains since May 27, when he left Murphy on Bike Route 2, running 40-plus miles per day, with the plan of reaching Manteo 18 days and 740 or so miles and four pairs of shoes later.

That’s three weeks of running six days and resting one while receiving fortifying food, water and support from family and friends who have scheduled Scott-time into their lives.

What makes Scott run?

“I’ve been running all my life,” he said from the terrace of the sweet Dogwood Acres cottage he and Mindy and Tyler, 9, so peacefully share. It started with cross-country in high school, and since college he has run at least two marathons (up to six) a year.

With this wild run he’s hoping to raise $25,000 for the American Cancer Society.

“One in four people in the U.S. is affected with cancer at some point in their life,” said Adams, 40, IT director for the School of Information and Library Science at UNC.

Cancer has kept its distance from Adams and his family, but his heart has not been protected from the pain felt by other loved ones. In July 2005, he and his best friend, Les Chapin paid homage to Chapin’s since-childhood-friend, Jay Clark, who died of bladder cancer, with a 200-mile run/bike ride (Adams running, Chapin pedaling) along the Blue Ridge Parkway that raised $8,000 for the cancer society.

“Since then, I’ve encountered a number of cancer survivors and heard their stories,” Adams said as he recalled those he’d known who didn’t survive, like his college roommate’s mother who died of breast cancer and a close friend of the family in Wilson who was the young mother of three. Most recently, while running a race in his hometown of Melbourne, Fla., he saw the father of a girl he’d grown up with. “I asked about Lisa and learned that she had died of cancer a year-and-a-half ago.

“It affects entire families and generations. In the same way patients fight the disease with their loved ones, I will tackle the miles together with family and close friends, and as a team we hope to make some small difference,” he said before beginning the race.

The first week brought plenty of pain for Adams. His feet were sporting five blisters on Monday.

“His feet are killing him,” said Mindy, pastor at Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church. “But he isn’t complaining. His spirits are really good.”

Mindy remains in Chapel Hill with Tyler until school ends next week, but her mother and aunt will be his support team for a portion of this week as Scott makes his way to Chapel Hill, where he will take a day’s rest.

Scott starts his road days at 7 a.m. with a ride by his support team to his starting point after eating two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a container of yogurt.

“Once you get moving, after about four miles, it feels pretty good,” he said. “I can feel horrible at 10 a.m., then down the road feel wonderful — or the opposite. How you feel in the morning is never how you’re going to feel later.” Especially on 47-mile days, like Sunday, with steep inclines from Little Switzerland to Lenior. At lunchtime, his team provides a chair and a ham and cheese sandwich that he eats while icing his legs and feet.

Post-run, his constant companion is ice — either in gel packs or the bathtub.

Mindy said, “I can’t even come close to comprehending his pain.”

Tyler has his own take on his father’s quest.

“I think it’s pretty cool. Nobody else I know could run as far as Daddy’s running,” Tyler said. “When he ran 200 miles, I thought that was really good. But now, I’m wowed out!”

Who wouldn’t be?

Watch Scott run through the miles and North Carolina sights, sounds and snakes by following his blog at runnc2008.ning.com, where contributions can be made and maybe somebody can blog some sense into him and make him take a year’s break. Or continue cheering him on — we all have to do whatever it is we have to do.

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