The finish line of The Great Run marathon was meters away.

Michael Westphal, a 58-year-old carpenter, had run an almost perfect race. The sunny, 70-degree day through his hometown of Cranberry Island, Maine, had played in his favor. For the first 10 miles, he nailed his goal pace, clocking 8:05-minute miles alongside his son, Brandon. He quickened his stride over the next 10 miles when his friend, Gary Allen, and his brother, Rolf Westphal, joined him. At the 20-mile mark, he hit “the wall” but resolved to press onward.

Once he reached the final straightaway—a flat stretch of pavement lined with spectators and vibrantly colored flags flapping in the breeze—Westphal stumbled to the ground, however.

Westphal wasn’t just fighting to finish the marathon on Saturday, his first attempt at the distance in more than 20 years. He was also battling symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. He fell down because his legs weren’t getting the signals from his brain to keep moving.

Westphal paused for a moment, gathered himself, returned to his feet, and took a couple shaky steps forward. Then he dropped to the pavement again. He pulled himself upright for a second time and regained some balance on his wobbling legs.

The trip-ups didn't seem to phase Westphal, who covered the final few steps of the marathon running.

Michael Westphal stumbled to the ground near the finish of The Great Run marathon. Kevin Morris

He clocked 3:32:56, a time fast enough to qualify him for the Boston Marathon. Westphal’s efforts also helped him raise $32,800 for the Michael J. Fox Foundation. The sum far exceeded his original goal of $4,000.



Wesphal said the feeling of finishing the race went “beyond the runner’s high. It was one of those things that only happens a few times in your life, if you’re lucky.”

In an email to Runner’s World Newswire, he wrote, “Although I did fall twice, the cheering crowd, the chalk writing on the roads by the island school children that read ‘Go Mike!’, and the knowledge that I was going to uphold my end of the bargain with my fundraising donors was an overwhelming feeling of happiness that’s hard to describe.”

A competitive runner in high school and college, Westphal decided to take a long hiatus from running in 1994 to focus on his job. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2006 and believed he'd never be able to run again. But last summer, he was inspired to try to return to the roads after witnessing Allen complete two 500-plus-mile treks throughout the U.S.

Wesphal soon discovered his Parkinson’s symptoms dissipated while he ran, so he put The Great Run marathon on his calendar and began training in earnest. His main goal was to get to the starting line injury free. If he accomplished that, Westphal said he just wanted to finish.

“I had donations of over $32,000, which averaged over $1,200 per mile,” Westphal wrote. “I wanted to make every mile count. There was a little bit of pressure not to disappoint.”

Last month, he completed a 17-mile run at 7:32-per-mile pace, which, if he could keep it up for 26.2 miles, would put him well under the 3:40 mark to earn him a bib for the Boston Marathon. But qualifying wasn’t really on his radar until the middle of the race.

“Once I started cranking along at a faster pace between 10 and 20 miles, I quit looking at my watch and ran according to how I felt,” Westphal wrote. “Coupled with the knowledge that I was far exceeding BQ pace by just feeling the miles fly by, I knew I could finish the race as long as I kept hydrated and wouldn’t be waylaid by unexpected heat stroke.”

At the 20-mile mark, Wesphal took a dose of carbidopa/levodopa, a synthetic dopamine-replacement medication that would help his muscles fire.

“I think the one and only low point [of the race] was having to slow down and walk a few times because of the low dopamine levels in my body,” Westphal said. “I think [the medication] didn’t kick in because of the large volume of fluids I was drinking.”

Westphal thinks the issue was “hit or miss” and that he could run much faster if he can get his dopamine levels under control. He plans to run the Mount Desert Island Marathon in Bar Harbor, Maine, in October and said there’s a good chance he’ll run the Boston Marathon next year.

“I have a slight feeling of regret of not continuing to compete through my late 30s and 40s, and I wonder how much faster I could be now if I didn’t have Parkinson’s,” Westphal said. “But you live with those decisions and the card you are dealt and focus on what you are doing with your life now. You can still make that magic happen with some passion of your own.”

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