Michael Westphal- Put One Foot in Front of the Other

Michael Westphal grew up on Great Cranberry Island and went on to become one of the state’s top distance runners. In his prime, he was running miles in the low 4s and marathons in the 2:20 range, competing with some of the best runners in New England. But Michael’s story took a turn when he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in his 50s — a condition that affects movement and coordination and could have easily ended his running career for good. Instead, he did something remarkable. Michael returned to running, discovered that movement actually helped manage his symptoms, qualified again for the Boston Marathon decades after his first appearance there, and has since used his running to raise awareness and money for Parkinson’s research. His story is about grit, resilience, and the power of putting one foot in front of the other — no matter what life throws your way.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:13

Welcome back to the Maine Shakeout. Today's guest is someone whose story goes far beyond finish lines and personal bests. Michael Westfell grew up on Great Cranberry Island, a tiny island off the coast of Maine, and went on to become one of the state's top distance runners. In his prime, he was running miles in the low fours and marathons in the 220 range, competing with some of the best runners in New England. But Michael's story took a turn when he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in his 50s, a condition that affects movement and coordination and could have very easily ended his running career for good. But instead, he chose to do something remarkable. Michael returned to running and discovered that movement actually helped manage his symptoms early on. He qualified again for the Boston Marathon decades after his first appearance there and has since used running to raise awareness and money for Parkinson's research. Michael's story is about grit, resilience, and the power of putting one foot in front of the other no matter what life throws your way. So, Michael, we are beyond honored to have you with us today. Welcome to the pod.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Well, thank you for the nice inter introduction.

SPEAKER_03 1:16

I tried. I tried. Do you prefer to be called Michael or Mike?

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Michael.

SPEAKER_03 1:20

Michael, perfect. So tell us about life on Great Cranberry Island. What did a typical day look like for you when you were younger? How were you raised?

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Well, I um I moved there when I was 13 years old and uh with my family. I had five siblings, and my my parents uh moved us up there about Thanksgiving in 19 1970. Um it was like going back. I came from a I came from uh two years of living in Acton, Massachusetts, that is uh and I came from a big junior high high school and and I went to a one-room school with my little brother as first grade in the same school.

SPEAKER_04 1:57

How many kids were in the school at that in that schoolhouse at the time?

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Um there got to be twenty that year.

SPEAKER_04 2:03

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Twenty four, one teacher.

SPEAKER_03 2:05

You went from polar opposite lifestyles.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Yeah. So I went I went from the nineteen seventies to the nineteen fifties, it seemed like all the trucks were old Ford trucks and Chevy trucks and yeah from the from the 50s. There weren't that many vehicles on the island.

SPEAKER_03 2:22

What's the population year-round on Cranberry Island?

SPEAKER_00 2:25

Well, when I moved there, it was it was 105 people living there. Now there's probably about 40 or 50. Oh wow.

SPEAKER_03 2:31

And one of those people was Gary, right? Gary Allen.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Yeah, Gary Allen was he was he was in my grade. He's the only other eighth grader. We finished we finished uh school together, graduated from Longfellow Elementary from uh eighth grade. And and uh he was he was I was a valedictorian, he was a salutarian.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

Love it. You beat him then too. You beat him at it seems like most everything, by the way.

SPEAKER_04 2:57

And then you you both um went to MDI for high school, is that right?

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Yeah, he went to the academy in his freshman year and uh and cross country up there. I went I went I went to MDI and boarded off boarded off the island at Celtics Harbor and lived with uh lived with a woman and um a couple, an old older couple that that were taking people in the under my sister's grush.

SPEAKER_03 3:17

So you lived there while you were going to school?

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Pardon me?

SPEAKER_03 3:20

So you lived with you boarded on like the mainland while you went to MDI?

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Yeah. I did that the first two years, my two years of college high school. Um and then and then the last two years of my parents moved over to Northeast Harbor and we we we rented an apartment in Northeast Harbor, which was much nicer. They they enabled me to actually go out for sports. I only went out for cross-country myself more year. We used to have to we we couldn't we we didn't have parents to drive us anywhere. We were hitchhiking home all the time. So there's there was a crew about about I'd say seven of us from nyons that were hitchhiking home every day, hitchhiking home every day at Southwest Harbor, get out the road and sometimes we hide, we'd put one person out there and hide the other five and come out of the woodwork when they and they stopped.

SPEAKER_04 4:12

That's hilarious. So you would go you would go to school and then you would hitchhike back home. Like that's how you got back and forth to school.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

Yeah, that's how we got back after practice. We hitchhike home.

SPEAKER_03 4:22

That's crazy. What a different time. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Yeah, there's no hitchhikers anymore on the road.

SPEAKER_03 4:26

No, no, not ones that I would pick up.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

I used to I used to hitchhike down to Boston and out out to Western Mass and all over the place. You know, I don't see hitchhikers anymore. Really don't.

SPEAKER_04 4:35

Tell us more about um high school and running in high school.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

Well, I started out my sophomore year. Um Gary Allen got me got me running. He decided to go up across country at MBI, and so I did too. And we ran our first race in the comas high school. Uh I ended up I ended up being like twenty twenty-third out of twenty-five kids on the team and saw and JV team. I didn't have a good start. I I was very small. I was only five foot five foot two or so at the time, and probably uh 95 pounds. So I started out team on uh lower levels.

SPEAKER_03 5:09

So when did things take a turn for you? If you started out the back of the pack, when did when did you start to figure out this whole running thing?

SPEAKER_00 5:17

Well, my junior year I I ended up being the seventh man on the team and uh and then uh improving quite a bit. I had my sisters to blame for that because my sisters were very good runners and uh and I was gonna I get very competitive with 'em. My sister Gretchen was uh was a half mile in high school and she also ran across country, but she was a state state record holder and a half mile at the time. Wow. And and uh and my sister Joan was even better. She she ended up uh finishing second in the nationals her sophomore year.

SPEAKER_03 5:46

Oh my word.

SPEAKER_00 5:47

Uh ocean, Wisconsin, and then finished fourth her senior year out in Den you know, Denver, Colorado.

SPEAKER_03 5:53

Wow. What's in the water on Cranberry Island?

SPEAKER_04 5:55

What's in the Westball family? Right?

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:59

Did you so before you went to high school though, did you you didn't run at all on the island with Gary? That kind of came afterwards?

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Came afterwards. We we we started running we started running after uh like junior year high school, I started running Gary more more on for training on the island.

SPEAKER_03 6:13

And then you decide that there was a future for running because you ran it then you go on to run in college, correct?

SPEAKER_00 6:18

Yeah, I ended up ended up running my senior year in high school. I ended up running I got seventeens in the state and cross country and I got I was seventh and two mile and in track outdoors, fourth indoors.

unknown 6:30

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

And uh figured I'd try it. I I had a really good coach at MBI high school, Howard Richards, and he he ended up inspired me to keep going with it with it. And uh I got to I got to the University of Maine and first meeting first meeting at at on the cross country team, I I I met uh all the runners, uh bunch of runners, Leo La Chance from from um Chatris, who is like Miles State Champion, and uh Jerry Holmes, who won the one that Class B class B uh Cross Country race. And it it was a it was a loaded team, and I was I was just like I was like overwhelmed. I bet I talked with it and I I was I was once again I was like 23rd on the team as a freshman and then ended up my sophomore year and twelfth on the team, and then I senior junior year, I was fifth man on the team. So I kept improving. I got I gained I gained some weight too, so you got a little bigger.

SPEAKER_04 7:30

Did you enjoy um cross uh you were doing cross country and track, of course. Did you enjoy one more than the other? And did you real start to realize that the longer distances kind of uh favored you?

SPEAKER_00 7:40

I like cross country much better because we had well, first of all, we had we had the girls run cross country too. That's when I met my future wife. Oh I uh my senior, I was on the bus the first first practice of the season, and I and the captains were were um designated to to hand out vitamin C to all the all the all the other cross uh cross country revenues. And I came up to my wife who had painted her nails red red the day before, and I said, nice nails. I had it from that point on.

SPEAKER_03 8:11

And the rest is history. Yeah, yeah. So she ran as well.

SPEAKER_00 8:15

Yeah, she ran as well.

SPEAKER_03 8:17

What did she specialize in? What did she do for track?

SPEAKER_00 8:19

Uh she needed mile and track, but she was she wasn't the fastest runner. She knew she didn't like the competitive side of running. She just liked camaraderie.

SPEAKER_03 8:27

I mean, don't we all? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Yeah, it was fun. It was fun to be on the team.

SPEAKER_03 8:32

And then you you, I mean, you were not just on the team, you were one of the fastest runners on the team. So you worked your way up. That seems to be a pattern for you. High school, you worked your way up to be one of the top runners, and then you kind of reset, you were towards the bottom and worked your way back up in college. And then um, you graduate from U Maine, and where where do you end up going after that?

SPEAKER_00 8:51

Um I ended up going on a bike trip to Europe with uh with G Gary and and my sister Joan. We biked from Amsterdam down to Munich and then we took a train from Munich to Marseille and took a train jump to Paris and then biked over to Europe, over England. We went to Normandy and then across Finland to uh England.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

That's so cool.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Yeah, it was quite a quite a trip, two-month trip.

SPEAKER_02 9:16

We were we were camping out in people's yards and yeah, I can only imagine that sounds fantastic what that looked like. I feel like probably many stories that you cannot publicly share.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

Yeah, well, I can't share some of some of Gary's stories. Yeah, he's he's a kind of guy who his his motto is like you gotta you gotta you gotta act like you own the place.

SPEAKER_03 9:38

Yeah, I that doesn't surprise me at all. Yeah, some things don't change.

SPEAKER_00 9:42

So he was fearless. He was fearless over there. There's things we wouldn't have gone, places we would have gone without Yeah, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_04 9:50

Yeah. So you spend that time together in Europe and then w you do you and you end up back on Great Cranberry, right? Is that correct?

SPEAKER_00 9:57

I no, I ended up going to get a job uh in the the next year after I graduated the DEP um in the Gesta. So I moved down there. When I moved down there, I ended up ended up uh well I I the previous previous April I ran the Boston Marathon on three miles a day from training. And I I finished at 240. So I decided in May I'd run 100 miles a week for for a month and and see I see how I could do rather rather than doing it three miles a day and uh ended up ended up running the Paul Bunny Marathon in in 229, yeah, and winning the race. So that was wait so back up back up just a second.

SPEAKER_04 10:42

So you ran the Boston Marathon three miles a day miles a day?

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Yeah, just on my endurance from from biking for two months and then three miles miles a day after that.

SPEAKER_04 10:55

That's so funny. So you would bike all day and then run three miles.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Yeah. Well, I went biking in Europe and then coming back and then starting running three miles a day. That's so so minimal. That's hilarious.

SPEAKER_03 11:06

That's crazy. Yeah. That's wild. So then you swap. So after you do the three miles a day training, which is funny to even call that training because it's laughable. But after you did that and you you uh ran it, you said 240, and then you decided that yeah, incredible. That's wild.

SPEAKER_04 11:24

So did you did you imagine a time in your head when you started running, or were you like, I'll just see what happens?

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Um, I just decided to run 100 miles a week and and uh and up running road races w running bang and bango. I ran the the heart run ten miles there and and went when that and then just started winning races. I just kept going until to pop on the marathon and I ended up winning that by a mile.

SPEAKER_03 11:49

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

Oh my word.

SPEAKER_03 11:52

So did that fuel your fire to keep running that success? The winning, is that what it was?

SPEAKER_00 11:59

Yeah, it did. It it just proved me I could I could do it. And I'd run it through the fall, through the fall and run I ran up winning ten races out there. I ran that year.

SPEAKER_03 12:09

What roughly how old were you or like when give me a time frame? Like when was this happening?

SPEAKER_00 12:15

Twenty three years old.

SPEAKER_03 12:16

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

And and uh then then I then I I took I got injured the next year. And the year after I I got married, so I I was was quite busy with that, you know, married life and uh I didn't run that much that in eighty two, but in eighty three I I came back and started running a hundred miles a week for three months. And uh ended up doing quite well that summer too.

SPEAKER_03 12:44

Did you just start you went from three miles to one hundred a week?

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Yeah, I did.

SPEAKER_03 12:50

Do you ever look back on that and think that's just crazy?

SPEAKER_00 12:53

Well, it just long long slow mile, it's long slow distance. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Work up in the morning at five o'clock and ran eight and a half miles and ran eight, eight and eight, eight to ten miles in the afternoon.

SPEAKER_04 13:09

Did you just love it?

SPEAKER_00 13:10

Yeah, I loved it, yeah. Yeah, I kind of found it if you could found later in life that that you could I could train um and get the same result by doing long distance or or just long slow distance or or interval workout and doing 70 miles a week.

SPEAKER_04 13:26

So Yep. Yep. So bring us bring us then from there to when you start running on Cranberry Island with Gary on that famous two mile stretch of road.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

Yeah, um, let's see. 80 eighty four I started business. I I I moved to Town Hill in Bar Harbor over over the island and uh started running with Gary there. And uh let's see, we started running we started running 70 miles a week and doing doing interval work, doing mile intervals and half mile intervals and doing hill work and started training for yeah, we were training for the New York City Marathon. And I run sugar low first. I ended up ended up running sugar low in August of 2000 uh 1983, see uh 229 again, 22950.

SPEAKER_04 14:17

And uh And you trained for that all on this two mile. So well Yeah, so we talked to Gary and he talked about this two mile stretch road, and you guys would just go up and down that road, and then I think we read that you sometimes would go out and run in the snow. Yeah, and then Gary would go out later in the day and see your footprints and figure out how far you'd run, and he would run faster or longer.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

There's no one you would drive on snowy days out there, and all there would be footprints up the roads to tell you could tell how far, you know, how far times uh even up on the road and and uh how fast she was going by like how far the spiders are fired.

SPEAKER_02 14:54

That's so funny. I could just see you like one of you waking up, like, all right, I'm gonna do more. I'm gonna do more than Michael today, or I'll I'm gonna do more than Gary today.

SPEAKER_03 15:01

Were you guys when I'm just thinking back, like young 20s, mid-20s, being fast and fit. It just must have been exhilarating. Just working out with your friend. Was the goal to just see how good you could get?

SPEAKER_00 15:17

Yeah, it was kind of effortless. It's good feeling to be able to go out and run and just run fast and not not not not feel feel tired like I do now.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

What did I now go running and it's just like I get winded and and it's it's quite a bit different.

SPEAKER_03 15:36

Right, right. And competition was different, I would assume, to you at the at those phases of your life. When you were in your 20s and you're running fast, did you enjoy competing in these road races?

SPEAKER_00 15:47

Oh, I love I love competing in road races. I won the Bangor Labor Day race in 1982, 1980, and uh and beat and beat Kurt Lowenstein was a good runner who finished 31st at Boston. Wow before. And uh totally unexpected.

SPEAKER_04 16:06

Wow. Lindsay and I were talking about like your kind of era in the 1980s and 90s, that there was just there was a real core of super fast main runners, right? During your time. You guys it's fast everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

I mean, in bottom Boston, I ran, I mean, I I ran 230 one year and uh and ended up in 304th place.

SPEAKER_04 16:29

304th? Wow.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

Yeah, I guess so.

SPEAKER_03 16:33

Yes, that surprises me. That surprises me. I I would think that I would think that would have been faster. Yeah, I guess. Yeah. That surprises me that there are that many craft people.

SPEAKER_04 16:46

Gary has noted, um, or when we read an article about you, uh, Gary noted that during that time there were a remarkable density of fast marathoners on Cranberry Island. He said there were six that who were those yourself and Gary, and then who else were those five or so other super, like he said sub-three marathoners. And he sort of, for our listeners, compared it to Kenya. He's like the density of fast marathoners on Cranberry Island was similar to that, that you can only find and maybe eaton Kenya right now. So who were those other marathoners?

SPEAKER_00 17:20

Well, two of them were my brother, my brothers. Um were they?

SPEAKER_04 17:24

I wondered, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

Well, because they they ran they ran 250, 254 at the age 17, and James ran 254 at the age 18.

SPEAKER_04 17:34

They were younger brothers?

SPEAKER_00 17:35

Younger brothers, yeah. Five years younger and seven years younger.

SPEAKER_04 17:37

So your family had three out of the seven fastest. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

My sister Joan won the Paul Bunny Marathon in in 80 in um 1977. She won it just three hours and 25 minutes, I think.

SPEAKER_04 17:53

Why were why was your family so good at running? Was it the way you were raised? Was it just you were outside all the time? Like what was it about you guys?

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Gotta gotta win. Yeah, your attitude. Very professive attitude.

SPEAKER_03 18:05

Yeah. I think that uh or I should ask if you think this. I would assume that your lifestyle on Cranberry Island would have something to do with the amount of grit that you need to be a good endurance runner. Would you agree?

SPEAKER_00 18:16

Yeah, I'd agree. Um, you know, you just have a rough life. You you you're outside a lot and and in the snow and not not not worrying about the weather too much.

SPEAKER_03 18:26

Right. I mean, that's like you running on those winter, those snowy days. I'm sure you didn't even think about it. Like, who cares if that's if it's cold?

SPEAKER_00 18:36

Just run out and do that.

SPEAKER_03 18:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

And care about the snow.

SPEAKER_03 18:40

Yeah. I think that's an attitude that's starting to get lost a little bit. You know, people see the weather and they're like, oh, maybe I won't go run today. I'm one of sometimes I check myself.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

They'll spend their time on the cell phone, uh cell phones checking the weather.

SPEAKER_03 18:52

Yeah, just go.

SPEAKER_04 18:55

Just go outside and just go and do it. Yeah, I love that. So talk to us so you were um quite quite an elite carpenter as well, right? Is that how you you lived on Cranberry and you built a number of houses there and that's how you made your living. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_00 19:09

Yeah, that's correct. I I moved out there after working for three years in Southwest Harbor as a carburetor. I started my own birth my own business and uh ended up get uh get a Peter Forbes house, uh famous architect from Boston. And I'm building a big house um down the end of the island on the back shore. And I build a number of big houses big houses out there.

SPEAKER_04 19:31

Out there.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

About ten about ten houses. Also did additions and and and remodels and things like that.

SPEAKER_03 19:37

So manual labor all day and then also log 100 mile weeks. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Also I care I check I care take when right now I care for 50 houses. Uh is out there. Some some houses we just check once once a week.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:01

So during this time you were you were running, you were having incredible success running, you're a carpenter, and then you started to feel a little bit differently. So, do you want to talk to us a little bit about um how you you started to feel some changes in your body that eventually ended up being diagnosed as Parkinson's?

SPEAKER_00 20:19

Yeah, I ended up not running for competitively for about ten or fifteen years. 1984 to through 2013, I didn't I didn't run that much competitively. I was coaching coaching little leading for my my s sons and uh and and uh just working on my carpentry business. And then in 19 2003 I ended up I was digging some holes for a foundation, for cement tube foundation. And I felt a pain in my shoulder and I couldn't I wouldn't go away. Kind of traveled up and down my arm, just really stiffness. My arm wasn't swinging. And I ended up ended up going to a physical therapist and uh sh she finally um said I should go see a neurologist after after three years uh uh doing working with her and uh and ended up ended up they put me on carbon dopamine limitopa, which is dop dopamine is my missing was missing my brain production of dopamine, which uh it's it connects connects the neurons in your brain. Dopamine is required required to connect the dop the um neurons in your brain. And uh they must say gave me the carbonova limidopa, I got better. I mean I I I could do things that I couldn't do before. And it that it was indicated that I had Parkinson's. There's no other no other there's no blood tests for Parkinson's.

SPEAKER_03 21:43

I was going to ask how it was diagnosed. So you ha the only way to really find out is by taking this medication and see if it's effective.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

Exactly, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:51

So is that the main um I is that the main cause of Parkinson's a lack of dopamine in that

SPEAKER_00 22:01

It's a symptom. It's the main reason why people have partisans is is it something in your brain that creates dopamine and it it just it just ceases to exist. You get you get some dopamine, but it gets less and less on a time. So you have to take you to say straight dopamine covered up a leader.

SPEAKER_04 22:22

Makes sense. So talk to us about why so so your body wasn't acting the way it should. You were diagnosed with Parkinson's, but you said you stopped running for a long time. Um and talk to us a little bit about why you weren't running. Was it because you couldn't or you didn't like the way it felt running? Talk to us about that.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

Well for one of the ones I once I had Parkinson's, I I didn't run for a while because I I didn't like the way I looked. I my form was really bad and and I my head was bobbing to left and right. I just a very bad dyskinesia too, which was uncontrolled body movements. Like Michael J. Fox where he moves all around and shapes. Basically neuron neurons are firing in your brain randomly and your body just moving around constantly.

SPEAKER_03 23:07

And you don't have control over that, correct?

SPEAKER_00 23:09

No control. No control over it whatsoever. So I I I felt funny going to road races and and having people see me that way. So I didn't run I didn't I didn't I didn't run that much until two thousand two thousand fi fifteen.

SPEAKER_03 23:22

So what happened in twenty fifteen? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

Well I just decided I I loved running too much. I just wanted to do it and I didn't care what people thought. I figured I I figured I'd be a good advocate for for um for partners and patients and and uh and I ended up ended up signing up for to run for Michael J. Fox Foundation. Ended up uh raising raising over ninety thousand dollars over three years for Marcus Michael J. Fox Foundation.

SPEAKER_03 23:48

Wow. Can you tell us a little bit about what that foundation does?

SPEAKER_00 23:51

It's does research for it's finds provides funds for research for Parkinson's. They done a lot of work with with different hospitals and and and even even Jackson Lab up here in Bar Harbor, I know people working who received funds from Michael J. Fox Foundation researchers.

SPEAKER_03 24:12

And the goal is to find there is no cure at this point, correct?

SPEAKER_00 24:16

No cure, no cure, no.

SPEAKER_03 24:17

So the goal is to raise enough money to hopefully find a cure and find get the research we need to find a cure.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

Yeah. In 2002 I end up end up having a free v deep brain s stimulation surgery. Okay. And I find I let two electrodes in my brain and run a wire down behind my ear and down to my chest to a battery battery pack in my chest, like a pacemaker.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

And uh and I'm getting rid of all my dystnesia. I used to move all around like Michael J. Fox.

SPEAKER_03 24:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

Got rid of it.

SPEAKER_03 24:48

So that that surgery, so since that point you have not had issues with body movement.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

No, I haven't. I haven't. Wow. It's totally true. Wow.

SPEAKER_04 24:59

I was gonna comment on that. I I we had watched a documentary about you where you were having those involuntary movements and you're you're so still now, so I wondered.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

Yeah. I still I'm still it's still slow times when I kind of get foggy brain and and and uh and just don't feel good, just just feel ugly. But that's that's the worst symptom now. But the disconnection is totally gone.

SPEAKER_04 25:22

That's fantastic. That is fantastic. Talk to us about um when you did you started running again, because we're gonna relate it back to the the dopamine, right? You started running again and how you started feeling better because running allowed you to um produce dopamine.

SPEAKER_00 25:38

Yeah, uh I started running running again in 2015. Seriously, ended up being able to find that the the more I ran, the better I felt.

SPEAKER_01 25:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:48

I could actually actually get rid of the just the slow periods a little bit uh by just going and run a quarter mile fast. And and then I when I first started running, when I first started running uh at the quarter mile, my my my knees would be sh knocking against each other and yeah, I feel I feel uh I'd feel you know, totally discord uncoordinated. But after a quarter mile, half mile, I start feeling good again and I I could totally, totally uh get out of that that that funk.

SPEAKER_03 26:19

Yeah, it's truly remarkable. I I just I I can't believe that. You know, you watch I was watching this the documentary that um I think it was was it OJ's son?

SPEAKER_01 26:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:28

I think that did like a the short documentary on your marathon run on and I was just thinking, watching you before you were about to start that race, you were having involuntary movements, and I was how how could you get your body to start running?

SPEAKER_00 26:44

Yeah, for some some reason for some reason my legs weren't affected.

SPEAKER_04 26:48

Yeah, okay. So not your legs, just should have your upper body was.

SPEAKER_00 26:53

My legs weren't affected when affected by the running affected to to prevent me from running. Okay. I still had strength in my legs and uh still move around a lot. If you didn't if you know if my feet move around a lot.

SPEAKER_04 27:04

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:05

I just can't stop my feet, but once I got running, I'd I'd get my form back and I'd I'd yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:12

We it was pretty incredible watching that. We watched obviously that documentary. And yes, in the beginning, you know, you looked like you had all those involuntary movements, and you know, one you would wonder how how is this man gonna run? And then in a mile or two, you look like every other runner. She's a very fast runner, not like every other runner, like you were fast. Uh it was incredible. And so tell us the story about what the goal, what was the goal of that marathon?

SPEAKER_00 27:38

The goal of the marathon was to finish first.

SPEAKER_04 27:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 27:40

I I knew I knew I knew when I when I um when I started training, I started training in February for the for the May, May 20th, uh or June, I think it's June 20th marathon. And ended up um running about 50 miles a week at at the at the maximum.

SPEAKER_04 28:00

Uh able to get that in and then you qu and you qualified for Boston, right?

SPEAKER_00 28:06

Yeah, I ended up and I finished second in the race and and qualified for Boston. Uh and I finished in three hours and thirty-nine thirty two thirty-two minutes.

SPEAKER_04 28:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

Which which and uh Gary Gary claims is an unofficial world record.

SPEAKER_03 28:23

Yes, which's what I was going to say. It's the unofficial because I guess how do you make it official, but the unofficial, official. Yeah. Record pretty incredible. Pretty incredible.

SPEAKER_00 28:36

Gary and I both researched and couldn't find anything faster. One guy ran ran into Los Angeles marathon marathon in 339. Or seven minutes slower than I ran, but but that was fastest. There's some better runners. There's some better runners who um were slower, but like one guy, one guy did that did that um that marathon on every continent in s in s in every in seven days or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 29:02

Yeah. So we're gonna call it the official I say it's official. We're calling it the official, the fastest.

SPEAKER_03 29:08

Yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_04 29:09

Well, so then and if I it I might have read this incorrectly, but was it true that you had like a fractured hip or you there was some you had broken something while you ran this marathon and then two weeks later you found out you broke it?

SPEAKER_00 29:22

Yeah, well that fall after after the after I qualified for Boston, I ended up signing up for the MDI marathon. And I was I was slated to I was uh fundraising still and I and I wanted to finish that race and uh I ended up and about two weeks three weeks before the race, I ended up coming down off some stairs off a deck fast and and uh ended up fracturing my pelvis. But he didn't know. But you can't know right, yeah. I knew right away that I hurt hurt myself. I didn't I didn't run for like seven days before the race and ended up g getting a cortisone shot because I thought it was I thought it was something muscular.

SPEAKER_01 30:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

And uh and I started the race and and and at mile two I started started feeling pain, real pain, and and uh my by about mile five it went numb and I end up ended up just suffering through it and uh two hours three hours and thirty-nine minutes or so.

SPEAKER_03 30:20

That's in that's that's insane.

SPEAKER_00 30:23

I couldn't I couldn't walk for two months. Well we might cut this.

SPEAKER_03 30:26

Well yeah, you had to be a little bit more than a little bit pelvis. Like you know holy cow.

SPEAKER_04 30:31

Michael, your story I mean, you you tell these stories, these little snippets, and it's just really incredible the grit that you have, right? I think it's on it's absolutely uncommon and it's almost hard to fathom just how tough you are. Right. Um, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:47

I know he's inherited.

SPEAKER_04 30:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:52

I think it's your island heritage. Yeah, I think so too. You know, it it's true. I like the little snippet stories. Yeah sure, you are you are living and competing at this time with Parkinson's, but with all of that removed, we would still be sitting here talking to you about how incredible of a runner you are in person. Like that's just I'm totally speechless at your efforts and all of your accomplishments. Right. When you were first diagnosed, those well, I know you weren't running in the beginning. So let's just let me rephrase that. When you started running after your diagnosis, did you have any other medication that you that was you found helpful or that you were able to take so that those movements were maybe better controlled while you were running like longer runs, like the marathon distance?

SPEAKER_00 31:36

Well, I hadn't I had to make sure to take my carbon over leaving over every every well, I usually take it every three hours, but I took it every two hours during the marathon.

SPEAKER_03 31:44

Okay, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 31:51

Yeah, that's why I fell down towards the end then. Right.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

I was gonna bring yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:55

Yeah, because uh and that the medications were kicking in and I and I my body my brain was telling my body to move and my body wouldn't move and went right forward. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 32:08

Oh my god. So right, I mean let's just talk about another little moment of grit. So at the end of the great cranberry marathon, you you needed to hit two forward. I forgot what number you needed to hit to qualify, but three forward. And you were right there and you were right before the finish line, and we're gonna post this documentary, but you had told Gary that you felt your medication was wearing off and you weren't able to control your legs, and there and documentary shows you falling twice and and you just pop right back up. No hesitation, pop right back up and finish and qualify for Boston.

SPEAKER_00 32:40

I'm lucky I didn't spray my face up. I I can't I can't run an inch from spraying my face up both times. Oh my gosh. I fell f I fell well.

SPEAKER_04 32:49

Yeah, yeah. You fell hard. You fell really hard.

SPEAKER_00 32:52

How is I wanted to finish, I wanna I want to sprint to the finish and I couldn't uh I just couldn't do it. And then I followed down. Felt like there was a dip in the road. I just fell down and just like a dip in the road and I went down. Yeah, I went down and got up and just uh decided just to be slow, slow finish.

SPEAKER_03 33:10

Michael, how did slow? It was not slow, definitely not slow, but how did you handle those um I guess moments? Uh how did you handle that mentally? Did that take a toll on you to you like you said, you wanted to sprint to that finish and you just couldn't? How did you battle with that?

SPEAKER_00 33:29

I just regard I was just glad to get done with the race.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:33

The last four miles of murder. I and up and up walk run walking a few times. Uh just just it's funny, I'd I'd stop and I'd I'd I'd walk for maybe two telephone poles and then and then I'd run and then I'd run for like five telephone poles. Every time I started started running, I'd run run run really fast. It wasn't like I was tired. I I just couldn't do it. It's like my body was getting getting under the medication it needed when I was walking and I'd run really fast and then it catch up with me.

SPEAKER_03 34:03

Yeah, that had to have been so frustrating.

SPEAKER_00 34:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 34:08

Was um was running the Boston Marathon the following year just a huge celebration?

SPEAKER_00 34:14

Yeah, yeah. I mean and I'm running with my brother Rolf. The the marathon cramber I ended up running running with my son Brendan and and Gary and uh and uh and Rolf, Rolf ended up running with me the last last 10 months. What's yeah yeah so Rolf ran me the whole the whole Boston marathon. Wow that that was fun share sharing that time with them.

SPEAKER_03 34:37

Boy that talk about standing on that Boston Marathon starting line decades later, post-diagnosis. I'm sure you you went from running competitively because you loved to win and you loved that competition. I can only assume that that mindset was very different when you showed up decades later after being diagnosed with Parkinson. So what was it like that day? Your first Boston Marathon back.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

Well, it was quite quite fun. It was exhilarating because it was a beautiful day and was running my brother and and uh and and and people it was kind of we Gary Gary got us on being in race tractor. He we got we got special treatment MVP bus. So I ended up um ended up meeting Christy Sherlington and uh she was she was doing she was doing a uh a thing for mothers. I was fundraiser for mothers with with with um young mothers, un unmarried mothers and and uh and I meeting meeting um Andy Burfoot, the former the the guy w won the Boston Marathon in 64 or something.

SPEAKER_01 35:47

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 35:48

And uh bunch a bunch of MVPs on the Scott Jr Scott Jerry Oh really? Yeah, I feel his last name.

SPEAKER_04 35:56

Jer Jerich. This is Jerek, you're right. Yeah, yeah, Jerek.

SPEAKER_00 35:59

Yeah, the ultra marathon.

SPEAKER_04 36:00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:03

In recording time, yeah. He was on the boat on the bus.

SPEAKER_04 36:08

And uh You deserve to be Michael. You were your own MVP for sure.

SPEAKER_00 36:12

Oh thank you. Uh then uh closing the industry down for us too. The policemen were on the on ramps and the soccer traffic, the buses to go through.

SPEAKER_04 36:21

Oh, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 36:22

We got to get the MVP tree tree. As you should.

SPEAKER_04 36:25

Yeah. So did you um are you did you continue running after that or are you still able to run? What's what's it like today?

SPEAKER_00 36:33

I ran I ran I ran for um a couple more years. And I in 2018 I ran competitively and uh do a fundraiser with Johnny Benoit Samuelson.

SPEAKER_04 36:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:46

Parkinson's uh that sugar loaf. Uh I re-entered I re I ended up breaking my pelvis again. Actually my pelvis again. I was supposed to run sugarloaf marathon with her and uh just running the last 15k with her. She ran the whole marathon.

unknown 37:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:04

I I I I caught where there was 15k to go and and ran in with her. And uh but I didn't I hadn't I hadn't been training for two weeks before before just trying to mess up for it. Yeah. My pel my pelvis was I I uh she was recovering from that injury. But so you keep I kept running 'til 2018 and then Okay. Then uh then 2019, 2020 I started started to have more symptoms and uh and and I ended up ended up uh not not being able to run more than a mile or two miles at a time. It just it just happened just just quickly. I was running the summer and all of a sudden one week I I just couldn't run it, just couldn't run very far. And I get winded and and I so I so I tried I tried to keep running two miles a day and then and uh ended up not being able to run up starting to fall and things. So I I quit I quit running in 2020.

SPEAKER_03 38:06

You did a lot of your fundraising through your racing and you kind of exposed Parkinson's in that way and the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Do you still find ways to bring awareness, I guess?

SPEAKER_00 38:18

Well, I I I try to keep a shape a little bit. I I've gone to UI and and do spin class now.

SPEAKER_01 38:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:24

I do box I I there's a the special program for rocks I'll rest rock steady boxing in in uh in Ellsworth where I I I box which and do do balance training and and uh other things par with Parkinson patients. It's exclusively for parkers. Wow. That's fantastic. Yeah, so that that's that's how and a lot of people a lot of people know know that I know that I do it. Sound inspiring. You are that they're quite amazed that I can do it. I I I've taken up taken up ride on an e-bike too.

SPEAKER_04 38:59

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 38:59

That is fantastic.

SPEAKER_04 39:01

Are you are there some trails to ride on on the National Park.

SPEAKER_00 39:06

Right.

SPEAKER_04 39:08

Well, we're I'm sorry, uh so you don't live on the island anymore. Are you living in Bar Harbor?

SPEAKER_00 39:12

I'm in Bar Harbor now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 39:14

Oh I can't realize that. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 39:15

So now you have quick access to perfect all of the things. Yeah. Yeah. That is perfect.

SPEAKER_04 39:20

How do you how do you feel now? How do you feel?

SPEAKER_00 39:23

Oh, I feel I feel good. I feel like there's this things that there's things that I can't do anymore. I can't skate.

SPEAKER_04 39:33

I can't skate backwards either.

SPEAKER_00 39:36

I used to do all that stuff and just the there's things that are just yeah, things that you try to lose lose ability to do over time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:52

When were you inducted in I should actually preface that by saying minor detail that we have not mentioned yet? You are also in the main running hall of fame. When were you inducted into the main running hall of fame?

SPEAKER_00 40:02

2016. An OJ Lowe, a good friend of mine, who's also been on your show on your podcast, nominated me. Yeah. Got on there with with a bunch of other people.

SPEAKER_01 40:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:14

Along with along with Lar Larry Allen, who was from the island. Gary's brother. Gary got inducted in 2018. Of course, you were first.

SPEAKER_04 40:22

Yeah. You should tell him. Remind him. You were first.

SPEAKER_00 40:25

Yeah. I prepare everybody for him.

SPEAKER_02 40:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:29

Takes a lot of preparation. Yes. He's a horse. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:33

I think it's funny.

SPEAKER_03 40:35

You're um, I love that you are still friends. You you, Gary, OJ are three of the most influential runners that I have ever met or heard of or read about, and you're still influenced. OJ.

SPEAKER_00 40:49

OJ's still he's still spin class too. I see him all the time. We're gonna spin class together and then we go out to coffee.

SPEAKER_04 40:56

That's great. We ought to go to spring class. Yeah, we should go to spin class so that we can hang out with hang out with the cool people. Seriously. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:02

Chocolate Mondays, Wednesdays, Monday, Wednesday, 5, 8:30.

unknown 41:06

All right.

SPEAKER_03 41:06

Perfect. Okay. We're gonna find a day. Yes. Come join so that we can get all of the uh the tips from the pros here.

SPEAKER_04 41:13

Um, should we go to five?

SPEAKER_03 41:14

Yeah. So we're gonna ask five questions, Michael. Um, and whatever comes to mind first, there's no wrong answer. Okay. All right. So how many miles do you think roughly you think you've logged on the famous two-mile stretch of road on the island?

SPEAKER_00 41:33

Oh, I say I say about 35,000.

SPEAKER_03 41:37

Oh my god. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 41:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:41

That's so many miles. Yeah. That's grit in itself. A two-mile stretch of road on repeat every single day. That takes grit to do that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:50

Yeah. There's some side roads you go on, but we usually say in the main main road.

SPEAKER_02 41:54

The main road. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 41:56

You can make a 10-mile out and back um workout if you want to see. Go on the side roads down all the driveways.

SPEAKER_02 42:06

People look out their window, they're like, who's coming to my house? Just Michael. Yeah. Just coming down to login.

SPEAKER_00 42:11

Yeah, I'm caresaking. I can't do care taking that way too.

SPEAKER_04 42:16

Yeah. Well actually that leads us to our next question. What is the favor your your most favorite place or um thing that you've built on Cranberry Island?

SPEAKER_00 42:28

Well, I built a house for the wards out there. Um 2012. It was quite a house, beautiful house. Nice view of Duck Islands. It's on the back shore of Cranberry. It's quite quite impressive.

SPEAKER_04 42:40

I bet it is.

SPEAKER_03 42:40

I I want to I would love to see like a portfolio of all the things that you just made. That's so neat. I think it's so cool. Your you have your um your imprint on the island forever. All right. What is a moment that if you were to look back at all of the life that you've lived and pick one moment you're most proud of, what would it be?

SPEAKER_00 43:01

Oh, let's see. Well, if I run it running, I'd I'd say would be uh I I finished I finished third, third twice in in the the uh Roland Dyer Memorial Road Road race out in Portland. One one year was behind behind Kenny Flanders and Andy Palmer. Wow. We said within a win a minute of of Kenny Flanders who won won the race. We were both ledges in the state of Maine. And yeah, and Joni Minoy finished 28th in that race. And and and there's out of the ten ten top finishers, seven were Hall of Famers. Back when Ralph Thomas was running, they give my give my friend a hard they give my friend John Howland a hard time because he ran the 5k that day. Yeah, I ran I ran twice twice twice his time.

SPEAKER_04 43:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:52

As we should. That's hilarious.

SPEAKER_04 43:54

Um if you could uh if you could go for a ride. First, if you could go for a run, that would be awesome. But if you could go for a run with anybody, dead or alive, anyone in the world, who would you pick?

SPEAKER_00 44:08

Oh, I'd say OJ Logan.

SPEAKER_04 44:10

Yeah, oh that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 44:11

He's my favorite.

SPEAKER_04 44:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:12

He he he taught me he taught me to to not not not be uh not not not not not to to be friends with people rather than be competitive to competitive people. He was he was like we used to run MDI used to run against Oranow High School. And uh and we we we made friends with OJ very early in early this evening.

SPEAKER_04 44:38

You this is one of my favorite quotes. There you said there's more to running than just beating people. I realized that when I was 58. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:47

It took a while for me to learn.

SPEAKER_04 44:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:50

We used to have voodoo dolls of oral runners. We flushed down the toilet at the same meat.

SPEAKER_02 44:55

That is so awesome. You wrote OJ on his. You're done.

SPEAKER_00 45:00

Yeah, we had the end of being this five times in the season my junior year. How are you talking about that?

SPEAKER_03 45:09

Yeah. It was obviously because of the voodoo dolls. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:14

All right. So our last question for you to wrap things up. When people listen to your story, when they hear your story years from now, what do you hope that they take away from it?

SPEAKER_00 45:26

And I and it raised a lot of funds for for research. Um that that I didn't give up. I kept running as long as I could.

SPEAKER_04 45:34

You did. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, a true inspiration. I mean, I don't I I don't even know if that really can, that's not the right word. It's not enough if you're not. Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_03 45:43

Yeah. So you I mean, you've inspired just reading about you, talking to you, seeing you, hearing your storytelling has inspired me. I mean, and I hope that it inspires everyone else in the same way. Just you mentioned earlier, um, you mentioned continuing to run, even when it wasn't necessarily ideal for you. It was hard. And it kind of puts things into perspective. Sometimes we need a little kick in the ass. Like, right. Who cares if you have a headache or if you have this like minor nuisance because everyone, there's always somebody who has it harder than you. And you've definitely inspired me to toughen up a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 46:26

Yeah. Well, thank you, Michael. It was a pleasure.