NEVER RUNNING ON EMPTY
BROKEN LEG DOESN’T KEEP HIGH-ENERGY NEFF FROM ROLE IN CHEVRON HOUSTON MARATHON
It was supposed to be a long November morning run.
Two miles to meet the group at Good Times Running in Katy for their Thursday six-mile run. Two more miles back home before he headed to work. A little creative training for the Chevron Houston Marathon.
Calum Neff was feeling great. Until he stepped into a crosswalk and waved “thank you” to a driver he thought was yielding the right of way.
The driver never saw him. A few seconds later, Neff was jumping high enough to come off the hood of a Ford F-150 pickup truck and hit the ground.
“I jumped so high to react when he was coming — a Heisman Trophy pose — that he thought I was on a bike,’’ Neff said. “That’s how high I was up on his hood, which really saved me from head injuries and other things that could have happened. It still knocked me quite hard and onto the road.”
He got a ride home, drove himself to the emergency room and found out that he had fractured his fibula.
Just like that, what would have been the Canadian’s fifth Houston marathon was off.
“It was devastating,’’ he said. “I was really ready to compete and run well.’’
Ironically, his surgeon told him to take the weekend off and he could start running again Monday.
The break was not in a weight-bearing area, but the Neff, 33, wanted to be cautious. It just didn’t feel right.
Passion for running
A few months later, Neff is easing back into a training schedule, but he won’t miss this weekend’s marathon. Instead of running, he’ll just be working behind the scenes as a media liaison.
“I wanted to give back to the marathon,’’ he said. “I told them I’ll hand out bananas if you want me to, or water but if you have something a little more exciting … I am a huge fan of the sport and I know the course like nobody else. I guided two of the women elite last year. I could give them a mile heads up on every pebble, pothole and water and knowing course, sports, city …”
If you get the idea, Neff doesn’t like standing still, you’re right. He’s always on the go whether it’s for his job as an operations manager for an oil services company, volunteer cross country coach at St. John’s XXIII High School or, as what really drives him, a runner.
Neff has taken a passion and turned it into a career. He ran his first 1K at age 4 — the Cajun Classic in Lafayette, La. — and he hopes to return this fall to celebrate his 30th year of racing at that same event.
He got the passion from his dad Jim, who worked in oil and gas around the world and ran wherever he was. Cal, as his friends call him, remembers watching his dad run the Houston Marathon as well one in London. But mostly he remembers that day when he was 9 and he finally “cut the cord” and beat his dad in a 10K in Calgary, Alberta.
Neff went to high school in Calgary but was not recruited to run in college, so he went to the Mount SAC Relays in Sacramento, Calif.
“I went through the stands and introduced myself — very nervously — to anyone who had a clipboard,’’ he said. “It definitely wasn’t my personality, but I needed to meet people.’’
The University of ArkansasLittle Rock reached out and he ran there for two years before transferring to the University of Houston. His parents had been transferred to Houston at the same time.
He ran cross country and the 1,500 at UH but never really improved that much. When he graduated, he found his niche.
Today, Neff runs everything from ultra-marathons to 800-meter runs. He was on the Canadian ultra-running team, where he ran the 50K Trail Championship in Italy last year and the Road World Championship 50K in China. He has also, with the help of sponsor Red Bull, competed in four Wings for Life World runs, which raises funds for spinal cord research, winning last year’s Florida event.
And, after becoming a father, he has added stroller running where he now holds two Guinness World Records — one for the half-marathon; another for the marathon. He set the half-marathon record of 1:11.27 pushing his daughter Holland in the 2016 Katy Half Marathon and, eight months later, set the marathon record of 2:31:21 while pushing his daughter Alessandra (Aley) in the 2016 Toronto Waterfront Marathon.
“When we moved to Houston, we were living close to Memorial Park,’’ Neff said of the stroller runs. “It was something daddy-daughter to do. Aley loves the people watching over there too. It was our thing to do.’’
Aley is now 5 and running a bit on her own. Holland is the middle child, with 10-month old Maya the latest arrival.
And he already has plans for another record — a dual stroller record pushing Maya and her cousin Lila. They might have tried it at this year’s Houston marathon, had it not been for the accident. Now, he’s just looking for the perfect race to pull that off.
A helping hand
Those records, it turned out, helped him during Hurricane Harvey. When some of his Katy neighbors were struggling, he leveraged his social media following to organize rescue efforts.
“I had that social media following and people that associated my name and trusted it,’’ he said. “When I said, hey, we need to help here, people would show up on that day.’’
Neff started by helping pull people out of danger on a fourperson raft, but realized he could be a bigger asset setting up posts to help communicate and coordinate official groups and volunteers, including area runners.
“Everyone pulled together,’’ he said. “It was incredible. It just gave you hope for humanity.’’
Ironically, Harvey played havoc with his training schedule, but Neff still flew to China a few weeks later and finished second.
“My training was pulling rafts and somehow I maintained my fitness, flew to China and really just ran with all that in my heart,’’ he said. “Running for people seemed to overcome training and fitness. It seems to work when you have that purpose.’’
He runs for girls and, every Wings for Life, he runs for his friend Stewart Midwinter, who was left a paraplegic after a paragliding accident.
Since the accident, he’s been cycling more and taking time to reset — this was the first bone break of his career — but he’s got a full schedule coming up for 2018.
He will compete in his fifth consecutive Wings for Life — this one in Ecuador — in May, then in June he plans to scratch a big run off his bucket list when he competes in the 89K (59 mile) Comrades Marathon in South Africa. The race dates back to the 1920s. Plus there’s that 30th anniversary of his first run in the fall.
And, if he can find the right race, he might add that third world stroller record.