Chicago area runners with Parkinson's joining 208-mile Blue Ridge Relay to help find cure
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Next weekend, three local runners will team up with nine others from across the country to take on a grueling physical challenge. The Blue Ridge Relay is one of the longest relay races in the country, spanning more than 200 miles from southwestern Virginia to Asheville, North Carolina.
CBS 2's Jackie Kostek caught up with two of the Team Synapse runners in north suburban Wilmette, and found out they have good reason to keep pushing.
Bill Bucklew and Scott Fernandez are almost always training for something.
"I walked across America in 2018. I walked across Great Britain last year. I've done, I don't know, over 30 marathons," Bucklew said.
But even with three Ironman events and about 50 marathons between them, the Blue Ridge Relay poses a challenge; 208 mountainous miles, up to 17,000-foot elevations, and a 36-hour time limit.
"One of the other members of the team reached out to me, and my initial response was, 'Yeah, why not?' And then I looked at the website, and I said, 'Why did I say yes?" Fernandez said.
It turns out the answer to that is pretty simple.
"We all need to continue to exercise daily to hold back the forces of the disease," Bucklew said.
Bucklew, Fernandez, and each of their 10 teammates have Parkinson's Disease; a progressive degenerative brain condition that causes tremors, slow movement, and problems with balance. The only thing known to slow the progression, they say, is exercise.
"It feels very good when you go see your doctor, and the doctor tells you the only reason you're holding back on your progression of that is your exercise," Fernandez said.
Fernandez had begun running in 2001 to support his daughter's fundraising for and recovery from leukemia, well before being diagnosed with Parkinson's last year at the age of 63. Bucklew didn't start until after he was diagnosed 10 years ago at age 43, not only to manage his own symptoms with exercise, but to inspire others to do same.
"I did a full Ironman that year. I signed up, didn't know if I could do it, no clue. People were telling me not to do it, you can't do it, whatever, and I did it. I completed it, and that put some wind in my sails," Bucklew said. "We have trappings in the disease. It's hard to explain to people that I can run a marathon, but I can't button the sleeve on my shirt. How do you communicate that to people? When I'm running, I just feel normal. I feel alive and it feels great."
In taking on big physical challenges, they've learned how to face the bigger struggles of life.
"The battles we fought when my daughter had cancer, when she had leukemia, nothing was going to help you if you kept looking backwards and wondering why? You always look forward, you're going to fight it, you're going to defeat it, you're going to do the best you can with it. I'm looking at this the same way. I'm not going to let a word Parkinson hold me back. So I'm going forward, and we're going to do the best we can as a team, and I'm going to fight the fight every day," Fernandez said.
For Bucklew and Fernandez, forward is the only direction worth moving in.
Bucklew said, over the past 10 years, there have been about 50 disease-modifying drugs added to the FDA pipeline. He and others are hopeful that, by continuing to raise money for research like they're doing with this race, they'll be able to receive those treatments in the future.
