Age, Disease No Barrier To Runner Fallis
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Kaneohe marathoner Don Fallis shows posters from
the Challenged Athletes Foundation, a charity
supported by an upcoming Death Valley race. Photo
by Nathalie Walker, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
If Kaneohe businessman Don Fallis trots past you at Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden, know that you’re looking at a cure for what ails you. At age 65 and diagnosed with diabetes II, he’s out to prove a few things - besides being regarded as totally nuts.
“I was asked if I was crazy, and yes, I do have one or two screws loose,” he admitted. Fallis, you see, is in training to do a 135-mile run through Death Valley - in July, when temperatures hover around 135 degrees.
Dubbed “the diabetic ultra runner” by his wife, Heather Spencer, Fallis has conquered many difficult races since learning of his disease in 1996. But this one will be the hardest of them all.
“The runners travel entirely on foot, basically uninterrupted in order to complete the distance in the allotted 60 hours,” he tells readers of his blog. With him at the July 23-25 race will be his pacing and support crew of fellow “seniors,” including Cheryl Loomis of Enchanted Lake, and John and PJ Salmonson of Kaneohe.
Fallis has been pacing himself for more than a decade now, believing that age and illness should not limit what you do with your life.
“My goal is awareness,” he said recently from his office at Hawaiian Sign & Design in Kaneohe.“Awareness that being 60 is not one foot in the coffin. I’ve found out that’s not so. It’s my pet peeve. We can still do what the kids are doing well up into our 60s.”
He trains three afternoons a week with a friend, running up Tantalus or around the island, doing the Ho’omaluhia loop, and competing in marathons and other endurance events all over the nation.
Fallis also runs, swims and exercises with his wife and mother-inlaw, who is 75.“She’s turning into a ball of fire,” he said of the elder athlete. “She’s just a kick to watch. She puts on her iPod shuffle, gets on an elliptical (at the Windward or Nuuanu YMCA) and gets going. You would not believe the pace!”
Thinking how he should handle the diabetes, Fallis said he realized that being a golf-cart golfer after a 35-40 hour work week was “just not active enough.” Short walks made a difference initially, and parking far away and taking the stairs helped too.
“I kind of expanded on it,” he said in an understatement.
The Badwater Ultramarathon next month is admittedly the biggest challenge he’s faced as a born-again fitness buff. But it’s more than bragging rights for the determined gray-haired athlete. Participants in the run collect pledges for its official charity, the Challenged Athletes Foundation for people with physical disabilities. (Fallis has $3,200 so far.)
“I wanted to do something less self-serving. It’s really made me feel good.”
To support his effort, get out and get active. When you stop panting, pick up the phone and call him at 247-4144 or go to www.missionpossible-badwater.com to help with the cause.
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