{"id":38719,"date":"2022-08-24T22:35:59","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T04:35:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/impossible-challenge-father-son-adventure-racers-are-pushing-the-limits-of-alzheimers\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:46:10","slug":"impossible-challenge-father-son-adventure-racers-are-pushing-the-limits-of-alzheimers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/impossible-challenge-father-son-adventure-racers-are-pushing-the-limits-of-alzheimers\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Impossible challenge\u2019: Father-son adventure racers are pushing the limits of Alzheimer\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Endurance
Endurance athletes Mark Macy, left, and his son, Travis, jog together Aug. 19 in Leadville. Mark \u201cMace\u201d Macy runs two times a day as part of his training program in his fight against Alzheimer's disease. (Hugh Carey\/The Colorado Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

LEADVILLE \u2013 Adventure racing pioneer Mark Macy just got a new tattoo.<\/p>\n

There on his forearm, in big block letters: \u201cIT\u2019S ALL GOOD TRAINING.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s said that a million times throughout my life,\u201d says his son, Travis, one of Colorado\u2019s most accomplished ultra athletes. \u201cWhen he says it now, I tell him, \u2018Well, Dad, I guess we found out what you\u2019re training for.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In the fall of 2018, Mark \u2013 everyone, including his wife, calls him \u201cMace\u201d \u2013 and Travis started their most grueling race yet, which says a lot for the two athletes who have navigated hundreds of preposterous endurance tests. Just like the first mile of a 100-mile haul, the finish line is blurry. Victory seems elusive. But still, they grind out the miles, enduring Mace\u2019s debilitating Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs there more risk in taking on a seemingly impossible challenge or in folding up the tent and going home, wondering forever what might have been?\u201d writes television producer Mark Burnett in the introduction of Travis and Mace\u2019s new book, \u201cA Mile at a Time.\u201d \u201cIn Mace\u2019s story \u2013 and that of his family \u2013 I have found an inspiring reminder that with love, determination and teamwork, the most formidable challenges can be overcome. Living the life you love is always worth the risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

A doctor\u2019s warning vs. throwing in the towel<\/div>\n

Mace has been an endurance racer since athletes started putting the word \u201cultra\u201d in front of ridiculously long races in the mid-1980s. As he raised a family in Evergreen and excelled as a trial attorney, he developed international renown in the world of adventure racing, competing in all eight of the influential Eco-Challenge races from 1995 to 2002.<\/p>\n

His son, Travis, followed in his wake, setting records as a professional adventure racer over the past 20 years. After winning 120 ultra endurance events in 17 countries, the father of two has transitioned to coaching, podcasting and writing, living with his family in Salida.<\/p>\n

In 2019, not even a year after Mace was diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s, Travis and Mace raced in the revival of Burnett\u2019s Eco-Challenge in Fiji. \u201cThe World\u2019s Toughest Race,\u201d they call it. The made-for-TV event \u2013 streamed in 10 episodes on Amazon Prime in the fall of 2020 \u2013 revived the dormant race series that launched Burnett\u2019s career, which includes shows like \u201cSurvivor\u201d and \u201cThe Apprentice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Salida
Salida resident Travis Macy has won 120 ultra endurance events in 17 countries. (Hugh Carey\/The Colorado Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mark
Mark \u201cMace\u201d Macy, of Evergreen, has competed in endurance races since the 1980s. (Hugh Carey\/The Colorado Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

There isn\u2019t a precedent for people with Alzheimer\u2019s competing in multiday, multidiscipline races designed to make contestants suffer in jungles, a doctor told Travis. The doctor warned that infections and sleep deprivation could accelerate cognitive losses. Infections and a lack of sleep are near-unavoidable components of the Eco-Challenge contest. So there were risks from racing in a jungle, but \u201cthere was also possibly a greater risk of throwing in the towel, staying home and calling it all good on a life lived fully,\u201d Travis writes in \u201cA Mile at a Time,\u201d which hits bookshelves this fall.<\/p>\n

The book opens with Mace\u2019s first entry in a new journal. He\u2019d just had confirmation from the last of several doctors that he indeed did have Alzheimer\u2019s. The doctor suggested he get his affairs in order and maybe take a vacation with Pam, his wife and high school sweetheart.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told him: THIS IS BULLSHIT,\u201d he writes, or rather, tells Pam, who logs his journal entries as writing escapes him. \u201cI am one of the fittest people around \u2026 and certainly as fit and healthy as any 56-year-old.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few lines later: \u201cMy wife just told me I am 64, not 56. Maybe it\u2019s not complete bullshit.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s still journaling. He\u2019s still talking on Travis\u2019 podcast. He\u2019s giving talks and sharing his life. He spent hours poring over the book, even as his eyesight failed him and his cognition ebbed, making sure his story gets told well and is broadcast far and wide.<\/p>\n

Travis, 39, says his dad\u2019s openness has spurred others to share their struggles. That\u2019s the whole idea. Mace still has lessons to share.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s shown me it\u2019s never too late to help someone and make a difference,\u201d says Travis, sitting on the porch of his Salida home during a recent rainstorm, a rare moment of stillness for the athlete as he rested for an upcoming pack burro race in Leadville. \u201cWhen something big happens that\u2019s really hard, sometimes we can sink into the hardness. Or we can think about how we can make changes and take whatever\u2019s good out of it. For me, that\u2019s trying to share and tell his story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mere months after his diagnosis, Mace gave a talk at the Evergreen Rec Center about Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the time since he was diagnosed, Dad had cycled through most, if not all, of the classic steps in the grieving process: denial, anger, depression, acceptance \u2026 well, he was still working on acceptance,\u201d Travis writes. \u201cAnd I\u2019m pretty sure he skipped bargaining altogether. Now he was ready to share some of what he had experienced.\u201d<\/p>\n

10 days, 417 miles<\/div>\n

That sharing started with the Eco-Challenge in 2019. The 10-day, 417-mile sufferfest pushed 280 competitors through mountains, rivers, swamps and oceans. They spent long days paddling homemade rafts, pushing mountain bikes through shin-deep mud and scaling sheer cliffs.<\/p>\n

\"Mark
Mark \u201cMace\u201d Macy\u2019s new tattoo repeats one of his favorite mantras. (Travis Macy\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Travis and Mace enlisted Colorado adventure racing legends Danelle Ballengee and Shane Sigle on their Team Endure. The list of required gear ran 14 pages for camping, running, biking, paddling and climbing. They trained for nearly a year. Ballengee, Sigle and Travis shouldered a challenge larger than their competitors, too, racing alongside an icon of their sport who needed extra effort to keep on task and could (and nearly did) fall apart if pushed too hard.<\/p>\n

The rope work challenged Mace in Fiji as \u201conce-familiar gear now looked and felt like a tangle of random webbing,\u201d Travis writes.<\/p>\n

The episodes highlight some of Mace\u2019s famously inspirational quips. The ones that Travis has heard all his life and still resonate deeply.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo what you love.\u201d \u201cOvercome the fear.\u201d \u201cCommit to it.\u201d \u201cKeep the faith.\u201d \u201cNever quit.\u201d \u201cKeep hammerin\u2019.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s all good training.\u201d<\/p>\n

One night, stumbling in the dark down muddy trails deep in the jungle in Fiji, Mace fell hundreds of times. He always got back up, telling his teammates, \u201cI\u2019m not quitting.\u201d It was a mirror to his larger journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was one of those surreal, once-in-a-lifetime marches: nothing to do but move forward, through the darkness, minute by minute, step by step, mile by mile,\u201d Travis writes.<\/p>\n

Team Endure did not finish the race. They backed off during a particularly gnarly section of river where they suspected they were marching into a rescue scenario.<\/p>\n

But Travis found success in the DNF, an acronym for did-not-finish that haunts elite racers. He says he\u2019s handling his dad\u2019s Alzheimer\u2019s diagnosis a bit better after the Eco-Challenge.<\/p>\n

Shifting perspective<\/div>\n

It took Travis a couple years to be able to read his dad\u2019s journal entries. After months of treatment plans and strategies to fight and win, he began to see that the tried-and-true, head-down perseverance that had rewarded him and his dad for so many years might not work against a disease for which there is no treatment or cure. He admits to moments of hopelessness. It\u2019s an uncommon feeling for an athlete who has pushed through countless moments of doubt.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is powerlessness, by definition. Fate is locked in. Will is meaningless. Which leaves, what? Despair, self-pity, preemptive grief? Is there really nothing more than the long, slow goodbye?\u201d he writes. \u201cHow do you make it to the end of a dark tunnel that doesn\u2019t end?\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where the title of the book comes in. \u201cOne Mile at a Time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized I had no choice but to hang in there,\u201d he writes. \u201cFor me, and for Dad, to \u2018keep going\u2019 means to lace up your damn shoes and do what you do. That means we run. We ride. We climb. We trek. We win. We fight. We don\u2019t hold on and wait for a miracle. We work. We move.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Endurance
Endurance athletes Mark \u201cMace\u201d Macy, at right, and his son, Travis, jog together last week. \u201cMace\u201d competed in all nine Eco-Challenge races from 1995 to 2002 as well as the 2019 revival of the race in Fiji. (Hugh Carey\/The Colorado Sun)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Last year, Travis and Mace ran the Leadville Race Series\u2019 Silver Rush, a 50-miler that traverses Upper Arkansas Valley mountains they both know well. Mace passed hundreds of racers on the uphill, keeping a swift pace that defined his career. Visual struggles kept him slow on the downhills and they missed the time cutoff at the 32-mile mark. They celebrated anyway, despite the DNF that a few years ago would have marked a misstep.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo keep things in perspective, he had just run 32 miles at 10,000 feet in 9\u00bd hours at age 68 with Alzheimer\u2019s,\u201d Travis writes. \u201cSo yeah, I\u2019d call that a pretty good day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Travis still marvels at his dad\u2019s grit and ability to find joy, engaging with friends and family and sharing jokes and lighthearted observations.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey look, I honestly believe that I can beat Alzheimer\u2019s,\u201d he says, chatting over coffee in Leadville as the day\u2019s racers line up to say hello to the legend. \u201cI eat perfectly. I run twice a day every day. I think I can beat it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alzheimer\u2019s stresses caregivers, limits freedoms, hinders simple tasks. It stirs sometimes overwhelming anxiety about the future and what\u2019s to come. Mace is teaching Travis to put those stressors and worries aside every so often and just focus on the moment. Celebrate the now. Just as they do when they are plodding through some incomprehensible number of mountain miles.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t have the past and you don\u2019t have the future, all you have is the present and here you are,\u201d Travis says. \u201cThat\u2019s the gift of all this for me. Be present and be with the people you are with and make the most of it. Someone with dementia has no choice, but they can teach us. Let\u2019s do the best with what\u2019s in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The best thing Travis could do, he says, is write. The book, he says, \u201chelps grow our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople in the Alzheimer\u2019s community \u2026 people who have dealt with it or are dealing with it \u2026 they need a strong team,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd a good team is important.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Mace is renowned for his pioneering wins in adventure racing, perhaps he is better known for pacing hundreds of friends in their races. Pacing is a quiet pillar of ultrarunning, with hardy friends shepherding athletes through the final miles of an ultra racecourse when decision-making is blurred and it\u2019s difficult to stay focused.<\/p>\n

Mace always said he likes pacing more than racing.<\/p>\n

That fits for a man who donated a kidney in early 2018 to a stranger as a sort of karmic payback for his wife, Pam, who has had three organ donors sustain her life.<\/p>\n

The book recounts a few stories from racers who credit Mark with delivering them races they would not have finished without him.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, this is the story of Mace: selfless, caring, and willing to do anything to help someone else achieve a significant goal that matters to them,\u201d writes Travis, who relies on his dad\u2019s pacing legacy in his new role as pacer in their most daunting race. \u201cAs his mind falters, we will be there to guide his steps and buoy his spirit so it keeps soaring.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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