How Long Can Running Keep Alzheimer's at Bay?

When legendary endurance racer Mark Macy got his diagnosis, he was told he had two years to live. That was four years ago.

- By Dave Holmes

"IT NEVER ALWAYS GETS WORSE.”

Five common words, arranged in an order I’ve never heard them said before. I nod, a silent yes, exactly. And then I give up: "I’m sorry, what?”

“It never always gets worse” is part of Travis Macy’s answer to my perfectly reasonable question: How and why would a person run one hundred miles, all in a row?” Hundred-mile races are but one of the many superhuman things he and his father, the equally legendary endurance athlete Mark Macy, 68, have both done multiple times over multiple decades. How—why—does a person take on arace where a 20-hour finish is an aspirational result? I have run marathons before, I have felt the pain and the elation and the thing where a stranger hands you an orange slice and you put it in your mouth. I have pushed myself past my limits. At least I thought I had. But I have never crossed a marathon finish line and thought to myself, Let’s do this roughly three more times right now. How do you mentally get yourself to 30 miles, to 50, to 100? How do you keep going, long after any sensible person would tell you to stop?

“You have to remember that it might actually get better,” Travis, 39, explains. You tend to think, I feel this bad after 20, I’m going to feel twice as bad after 40, but how do you know? Maybe you won't.” It is a testament to his general charisma level that I find myself believing him. If you keep eating and drinking, if you surround yourself with positive energy, you might hit a point where you feel better.” Travis smiles. Things turn around, that’s what happens in any long-distance event.”