Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A different kind of runner’s high

Despite struggle with MS, Platt to compete in Boston Marathon

- By Gretchen McKay

As he lines up for Monday’s Boston Marathon, John Platt will feel the same jitters as every runner, plus a few of his own. Did I train hard enough? Will I make it up Heartbreak Hill? At what mile will I go blind?

The Moon resident’s feet always are numb. It will feel like he’s running in work boots. His eyes will be glued to the ground as he thinks through every step.

When the Kenyan elites float past him around mile 11, he’ll be battling vertigo; by mile 18, his peripheral vision will go gray. That’s Uhthoff’s phenomenon, a rare side affect of his multiple sclerosis.

“It’s almost like a storm is approachin­g,” he says of his temporary blindness, which kicks in when his body gets too hot. “It gets darker and darker,” to the point where he has to stop and stuff ice into his skull cap and arm sleeves to cool down. That brings back his eyesight and puts him back on the course. Until he overheats and loses sight again.

But nothing will stop the 42year-old father of two — not the weather, which plays roulette with his symptoms; not his doctors, who advise him to not run long distances; and not his body, which fails him every day.

“You run free,” he says. “Alive. In the moment. It’s an entirely different type of runner’s high.”

His doctor calls him “opposition­ally defiant.” That makes Mr. Platt grin.

 ?? Lake Fong/Post-Gazette ?? John Platt gives a thumbs-up while preparing for a run in February.
Lake Fong/Post-Gazette John Platt gives a thumbs-up while preparing for a run in February.

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