Gathered around family celebrating his daughter’s collegiate graduation last May, Mac Rand thought it was going to be a night that he’ll remember for years. He will, but for all the wrong reasons.
The now 72-year-old couldn’t speak correctly, quickly grabbing the attention from his wife and being shuffled into a back office of the restaurant at which they were having dinner. A few minutes later, he was in the back of an ambulance being told that his life might change forever.
Someone who has prided himself on premier health, an ultramarathon runner who had also competed in a handful of Ironman events in his life, he broke down when he was finally informed as to what was going on. He had suffered a stroke.
“I lost it. I’ve led this physically incredible life … this can’t be happening,” the LaGrangeville resident said in an interview with the Poughkeepsie Journal.
Heartbreakingly, he had to watch his daughter graduate while laying in a hospital bed receiving treatment. He was determined to make this scare into yet another beautifully resilient chapter in his life.
Making the best of the worst
While not thinking so in the moment, Rand was one of the lucky ones when it came to the scares of having a stroke. Dealing with short-term side effects and taking most of the summer to recover, he was able to fully recoup back to being who he was.
Out of the 2,000 people who daily suffer some sort of stroke, he was one of the 10 percent who actually recover back to full health. Understanding the fortunate circumstances he found himself in, the avid runner was set to turn his tragedy into hope and inspiration for someone else.
Nearly a year to the day since his stroke, this upcoming week in Augusta, New Jersey, Rand is set to run a 12-hour ultramarathon to help support the less fortunate.
Partnering with The Stroke Foundation, an organization that specializes in helping stroke victims receive proper treatment and assists with the costs of recovery, he’s determined to make the solo feat mean that much more. As of publishing, Rand has already raised over $6,700 to the cause.
“I contacted them, it’s a small foundation in Texas, and I immediately connected with what they were doing to help people,” Rand said of The Stroke Foundation, mentioning the foundation’s slogan of ‘healing should have no price.’ “When you donate to an organization, you want to know where that money is going… here, 100 percent of that money is going to directly help people who need it…
“Even though I’ll never know who those people are, I know that people are going to benefit from me running around in circles for 12 hours. That’s really the most rewarding thing I can think of, that I can have a direct impact on people.”
Already quite a feat, this won’t be the first time he’s run by himself for the memories and help of others. Already completing marathons and Ironman competitions in the 1980s out of pure enjoyment and curiosity, it was another close personal tragedy that got him glued to doing it for others.
Getting hooked to helping others
Partnering with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society back in 1991, Rand competed in a 24-hour ultramarathon in Queens to help raise money and awareness for his brother Greg, who was currently going through a leukemia battle. He ultimately raised over $10,000 for the cause.
“I thought, ‘OK that’s it, I’m hooked,’ that was the time I realized that I could do these things that, for whatever reason, I could do it for something way more important than patting myself on the back.”
The love for running and staying physically active was the same, but something changed forever after that experience. Despite his brother tragically passing away just months after the initial run for charity, his passion to help continued.
“It’s about trying to make something more meaningful than just being centered around a personal accomplishment,” he said. “For years after that I did Ironmans, I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro with a group for the Leukemia Society. Even though Greg wasn’t there anymore it was for this cause that I had a very personal connection to.”
The fight through any debilitating illness is going to be a day-by-day fight, Rand has always kept that same mentality on his distance runs. Step-by-step, mile-by-mile. Every challenge is going to be a fight that you just have to battle through, it’s a mentality he’s held since his childhood trekking through the wilderness of Canada.
“I just learned up there, at a young age, I learned how to try and keep going. When it got hard, you just keep going, what are you going to do?” He said. “The mindset that I got from there was kind of a natural fit.”
Although all his efforts and charitable contributions are meant to be supporting others going through hardships, Rand understands how inspirational his continued involvement can be. The weight of the emotion and the impact that he creates is not lost on him.
Inspiration comes from anywhere
“If in some little way, whether it’s me or somebody else, we can inspire people to push themselves through those tough therapies and to get back as much as they can,” he noted. “We really can push ourselves beyond what we thought we were capable of… If somebody can read about this and push themselves to go for a walk around the block for the first time, that’s fantastic. I know that specific individuals will benefit from what I do.”
Running these different races for charity on his own, he’s never truly alone. When competing, Rand holds lists of the names of people who have donated to whichever cause that specific event was meant to raise funds and awareness for. Without the support of everyone involved, the accomplishment of the run doesn’t mean as much.
“Those names provide me so much inspiration. They’re supporting me, so they’re supporting my cause,” he noted. “It’s not ‘I did it,’ it’s ‘we did it.'”
In his 70s now, Rand admits he’s much closer to the end than the beginning of his life-long race. No matter what, though, he’ll do what he can to try and support someone who needs the help.
Step by step, mile by mile.
This article originally appeared on Poughkeepsie Journal: LaGrangeville resident to compete in ultramarathon nearly one year after stroke
Reporting by Eric Decker, Poughkeepsie Journal / Poughkeepsie Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
