Written by Samantha Holschbach
Dr. Rich Brown, associate professor of marketing, has a dream — what he calls his “crazy big dream” — that links his passion for running with 100 miles of meandering, mountainous trails in western Arkansas. A runner in more than a dozen marathons, including a 50-mile ultra-marathon, Brown is eager to test his limits this weekend in a 100-mile fight to the distant finish line.
However, Brown’s dream harbors yet another aspect, this one shared by many: a desire to end childhood cancer. Through his ultra-marathon, Brown hopes to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., a world leader in treating childhood cancer.
“For me, admittedly an unusual kind of guy, running 100 miles in the mountains will be fun,” Brown said. “Being a patient at St. Jude can be described in many ways, but fun is probably not one of the first descriptors that come to mind. Chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, needles, hair loss — those things scare me. What must they be like to a child?”
Brown has been a runner all his life, but his attention to St. Jude’s work first sparked when he jetted from Orlando to Memphis in 2001. En route, he encountered a woman in her early 20s, holding her child who possessed no hair because of chemotherapy. Brown was touched when he learned how St. Jude was helping the woman and child’s situation.
“I don’t think she had all the blessings in life that you wish everyone had,” Brown said. “Regardless, she was a mom with a sick baby, and that baby had been to the doctors, and they had given up. The only people that maybe could help them were at St. Jude.”
Brown learned that St. Jude paid for the woman’s apartment, car and groceries while her child received treatment, which was also covered by the hospital. St. Jude never bills the patient or the patient’s family.
“I got off the plane in Memphis, and I was counting my blessings because this situation could have been mine,” Brown said. “I gave [the woman] all the money I had in my wallet except what I had to have to get out of a parking garage. And I went home and hugged my kids, said a prayer.”
Shortly thereafter, Brown found a way to easily raise funds for the hospital that deeply touched his heart. In 2002, Brown ran the St. Jude Memphis Marathon and discovered the concept of a “St. Jude Hero,” a runner who specifically runs to raise money for the hospital.
“I got there and saw all these St. Jude Heroes,” Brown said. “I didn’t know what a St. Jude Hero was, but I started to find out. If you’re going to run a marathon, why not help this place? So the next year, I did.”
Brown raised $6,000 for St. Jude the following year, making him the number-two fundraiser of the race.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Brown said.
From that point on, Brown’s running was infused with a passion to fund St. Jude’s efforts. Between 2002 and 2007, he and the various teams he ran with (first year alone, last four years with teams) raised a collective $103,000.
Brown is not stopping anytime soon. Not only is he running the St. Jude Memphis Marathon Dec. 5 for his eighth time, Brown will run the 100-mile Arkansas Traveller race Oct. 3-4 in a personal effort to direct attention and funds toward St. Jude.
“It’s not an official St. Jude event,” Brown said of the Arkansas Traveller race. “I just thought, ‘Well, I’m just going to go ahead, do the fundraising and let people know that I’m doing a 100-mile race. And I’d like to raise money for St. Jude [through this].'”
So far, Brown has raised more than $1,500 by word-of-mouth and his Web page, www.mystjudeheroes.org/Run100Rich. He originally aimed to raise $100,000, but now his goal is open-ended at $2,000, $5,000 or $10,000.
“I kind of have it in my head that people will think, ‘Oh, this is kind of cool’ and make a donation for the hospital,” Brown said.
Brown has a grueling task ahead of him. The Arkansas Traveller race will commence at 6 a.m. on Oct. 3 at Lake Sylvia, a small lake in the heart of the Ouachita National Forest. For the next 23 to 30 hours, runners will wind through the hilly forest on gravel U.S. Forest Service roads, punctuated with eight rest stations. The stations will offer a short break and foodstuffs like boiled potatoes, turkey sandwiches, jelly, cookies — basically anything high in calories.
“From what I read, to run 100 miles, you have to eat,” Brown said. “You can’t get it all just from Gatorade. You need to eat meat and some bread. But at the same time, you don’t want to get so full like you’re having Thanksgiving dinner at one of these stations.”
Brown said he didn’t eat enough when he ran 50 miles last April. For the last seven or eight miles, he said he did not feel very good.
“I’m hoping to avoid that [feeling] until mile 75 or so,” Brown said. “But I know I’m going to feel terrible at the end. There’s no way to avoid it.”
For the most part, Brown will have to fend for himself, carrying a first-aid kit and a pack containing gels, energy bars and lights — he’ll be running all night. He’s aiming to run the race in fewer than 24 hours, which would earn him a porcelain belt buckle. If participants run between 24 and 30 hours, they will be awarded a bronze buckle.
“I want a porcelain one,” Brown said. “That’s my goal.”
To fulfill his ambitious goal, Brown will have to stave off a slew of possible hindrances like blisters, chaffing, cut skin and, of course, extraordinary fatigue.
“I’ve seen pictures of guys when they’ve finished,” Brown said. “They lost toenails, and their toes were huge, blisters like a plum on their feet. I’m planning to not let that happen. But I’m not going to let a blister stop me either.”
If Brown feels like quitting and needs inspiration, he said he will recall his personal encounters with St. Jude patients, including an instance in which a father recounted how his son with brain cancer was saved. Brown was at a pasta dinner preceding the St. Jude Memphis Marathon when a father told how treatments, surgeries and chemotherapy for his little boy failed, resulting in a last-resort visit to St. Jude. The father then detailed the struggles his son faced while at St. Jude: blindness, sickness and surgeries.
“After the story, you didn’t know if that little boy lived or died, but his dad had this great affection for St. Jude hospital,” Brown said. “Everyone was sitting there, swallowing hard. The guy finished his story, and this little boy came sprinting down the aisle and leaped up into his dad’s arms.
“I thought, ‘OK, I can run the marathon tomorrow, no problem. If I feel like quitting, I’ll just think of that little boy and his dad.”
Inspired by Brown’s passion for St. Jude, Harding senior Andrea Jernigan and junior Steven Terry ran a 5K and half-marathon, respectively, at last year’s St. Jude Memphis Marathon. They plan to run races this year as well, though Jernigan hopes to run a half-marathon instead of a 5K.
“I figure that since I have the ability to run health-wise, I should run for these kids,” Jernigan said.
Jernigan knows some St. Jude children first-hand, as she volunteered at the hospital for a few days last Thanksgiving break. An exercise science major, she assisted physical therapists adminstering treatments to children.
“Meeting those patients was really neat,” Jernigan said. “You have a face in mind that you’re running for.”
Terry has walked and run for several causes that benefited breast cancer research and a local children’s hospital near his home in San Diego, Calif. Terry knows a good cause when he sees it.
“It’s a really great cause,” Terry said of St. Jude. “The streets are just packed the whole way with people cheering for you. It was really enjoyable.”
Terry and Jernigan are recruiting a small team of student runners to participate in the December race in Memphis. Once a team is formed, they will manage a booth in the Student Center and fundraise in some capacity. Terry and Jernigan have Web pages at www.stjudeheroes.org that can be found by searching “sponsor a participant.”
As for Brown, he simply hopes to be able to teach his classes next week. He will have a wheelchair on standby just in case.
“I’m fully expecting my thighs to just be feeling like someone beat on them with a hammer,” Brown said. “I know that’s going to happen. But I know it won’t be permanent.”
What will be permanent is Brown’s dream to help end childhood cancer.
“Please give to the work at St. Jude,” Brown said. “Don’t give because I’m going to try to run 100 miles — the run is just the thing to get your attention.
“Give because the people at St. Jude Children’s Hospital are the best in the world at what they do. Give because kids deserve a chance to be grownups. The people at St. Jude love them all— sick or well, rich or poor, insured or not, this color or that, easy or hard. They want to help them all, but they can’t unless people like us do.”
