I’ll never forget when my dad ran the inaugural LA Marathon, back in 1986—though I remember it for reasons you might not expect. Before the race, Dad told my mother and me to wait for him at Mile 20, and explained that when he got there, he would be really hurting. He asked us to tell him he looked great, and to keep going. When the time came, though, my mother took one look at him and shouted, “You look horrible! Why don’t you stop?!”
“Mom!” I admonished her—though I had to admit she was right. By the time the poor guy reached the finish line he was pretty much shot. Race workers immediately rushed him into the medical tent and laid him down on a cot. I remember seeing him there, ashen and wrapped in a mylar blanket, and thinking to myself, “I’m never going to do anything like that to myself.”
Flash forward a couple decades—and I’ve run hundreds of marathons on all seven continents. Something in that early boyhood memory sunk in, I guess. And although my dad has mostly replaced his running shoes with golf spikes, he has returned the favor I extended him in LA, supporting me at many races, including my first 100-miler: the Western States Endurance Run.
I’ll never forget that experience. As I scraped my way toward the finish line, my father was waiting at the trailhead junction around Mile 99. I’d been running for nearly 21 continuous hours, and it was well past midnight. I collapsed into his arms, certain I could not continue. He held me for a few minutes…and then told me to do whatever I had to, to finish—even if it meant crawling. “Just never give up,” he advised me, opening his arms and sending me off again. I could see tears of pride streaming down his cheeks as I dragged my body onward in an effort to finish.
Eventually, I made it.
The memory of that night with my father is etched upon my heart for eternity. It was a tough, powerful, beautiful moment, and a gift my father bestowed upon me. “Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must, just never give up.”
Thank you Dad. Happy Father’s Day.
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Dean Karnazes
An internationally recognized endurance athlete and a New York Times bestselling author, Dean Karnazes has pushed his body and mind to inconceivable limits. Among his many accomplishments, he has run 350 continuous miles, foregoing sleep for three nights. He ran across Death Valley in 120-degree temperatures, and he ran a marathon to the South Pole in negative 40 degrees. On ten different occasions, he has run a 200-mile relay race solo, racing alongside teams of twelve.
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