Near-death experience motivates McCook eye doctor to start running

Rob Stamm with one mile to go in a recent marathon. Courtesy photo

A near-death experience changed Rob Stamm's life. But, it didn't happen overnight. It took months ... and then years ... for Rob to realize he didn't want to live life as a victim. He wanted to take charge. He not only wanted to feel good again. He wanted to feel great.

Before going forward, let's go back to that day ... that fateful day ... when Rob came within seconds of losing his life in a body surfing accident at Laguna Beach in Orange County, California. Rob, a vacationing McCook optometrist, was about 50 feet from shore when a giant wave came crashing in, throwing Rob into a violent body twist which knocked him unconscious and fractured the c-5 vertebrae in his neck.

Luckily, that day - Thursday, Oct. 23, 2008 - was not Rob's day to die. His wife, Gina, noticed immediately when he disappeared from sight, and two vacationing fireman who were nearby quickly swam to Rob's rescue, pulling the blue-turning, water-logged amateur body surfer to safety in just the nick of time.

Knocked unconscious, Rob only knows what happened that day from what his wife and other on-lookers told him.

It took months to recover, but Rob now regards the accident - as scary and painful as it was - as the turning point in his life. "If it hadn't have been for the accident, I might have kept coasting through life, not realizing how precious the gift of life is and how important it is for us to keep our bodies and minds functioning at full capacity."

Inspired by his wife, Gina, who was preparing for a half-marathon, Rob took up running in the early spring of 2009. Soon, he was hooked and a new chapter began in Rob's life.

It was not only running that became important ... it was dedicated running. "If I'm going to do this," Rob decided, "I'm going to it with a purpose, I'm going to train and compete. I'm going to discipline myself, setting a schedule and sticking to it."

Not many of us saw him run, because Rob often arose as early as 4:30 a.m. to get in his daily runs before seeing eye patients in McCook and Oberlin through his optometry practice at Lifetime Eye Care. Steadily, his weekly mileage counts rose, reaching 30 miles a week to train for 13.1-mile half marathons, then rising to 45 miles and beyond - to a top of 80 miles weekly - to get ready for full 26.2-mile marathons.

Testing himself to the limit, within five years Rob was ready to take the steps necessary to compete in the Boston Marathon, the only marathon in the world that requires a qualifying time. He made the qualifying time for his age group in 2014, and had the thrill of starting in the Boston inland suburb of Hopkinton and running with more than 30,000 other marathoners past Fenway Park and finally reaching the finish line in downtown Boston in a time of 3 hours and 27 minutes.

Good enough? Not for Rob Stamm. As soon as he finished, Rob realized he had made some rookie mistakes and pledged to return ... and do better.

So this year - on Patriot's Day, April 18, 2016 - Rob returned to the Boston Marathon. Two years older, but better prepared and with family there to support him, Rob paced himself and finished the marathon in three hours and 13 minutes.

Think about that. Here's a guy, nearing his 50th birthday, who was able to run more than 26 miles with an average time of 7.23 minutes a mile.

For a man who didn't take up running until he was past 40, Rob went from a broken neck to breakneck speeds. He has shown us that life's challenges don't have to get you down. At any age, you can run for your health ... and you can run for your life.

There's more to Rob's story. There's more to the story of running in McCook. This is only the start. In the weeks to come, I'll be sharing other stories as the Republican River Runners make a determined effort to schedule events and show the benefit of running for health and personal fulfillment.