A Brief Chat With Matt Long

By Peter Gambaccini
Photo courtesy of Matt Long
Matt Long is the author, with Runner's World Executive Editor Charles Butler, of The Long Run, which is now available in

paperback. Long was a firefighter and bar/restaurant owner who'd run a 3:13:56 marathon. In 2005, while cycling, he was literally run over by a bus. His injuries were devastating to say the least, his blood loss was severe, and at one point he was given just a five percent chance to live. But through his own courage and perseverance and the tenacity of a support crew of medical professionals, friends, and family, Long was back in the ING New York City Marathon in 2008. And in 2009, he was in an Ironman Triathlon, trying to finish under the 17-hour mark that would earn him distinction as an "Ironman." That excruciating and tense struggle, which is the epilogue to The Long Run, is a tale that, umm...left me in tears. As a reader, you owe it to yourself to share that experience. The Long Run is, as John L. Parker, Jr. says, "a truly inspiring story about an incredibly brave guy" who "has the stuff runners are - or would like to be - made of," and Joan Benoit Samuelson correctly praises it as "an incredibly courageous comeback story." Check out Long's I Will Foundation ("Helping people to overcome challenges caused by life altering injuries or illnesses") at iwillfoundation.com. You can order The Long Run Here. As Long puts it, "I am telling my story so others may see what the body is capable of when you have the will to live."
You talk in the book about the 'old Matt Long' and the 'new Matt Long.' Can you describe the differences between the old Matt Long and the new Matt Long? Has the 'new' Matt Long completely taken over at this point? Matt Long: In the book, when I talk about the old Matt Long, I'm referring to it as far as athletics (is concerned). It was something I mentally had to accept, that I'm no longer going to be able to do a workout at 6:00 mile repeats or 5:30 mile repeats. And I'd be facing totally different challenges as an athlete. As a person who looks at life differently, I would have to say that the new Matt Long has taken over. I have a newfound respect for how I live my life every day and the people I surround myself with and my daily outlook.
Even though my accident was five years ago, I still face different struggles every day, whether it's pain, mobility issues, or just normal daily functions that people take for granted. So I think the new Matt Long has taken over. I choose to surround myself with positive people. In athletics, I still have the same competitiveness and "push my body to the limit" attitude that I've had before as a kid growing up playing basketball and all that stuff. I'd say today, Matt Long is a mixture of the old and the new. I have full acceptance of my abilities and disabilities - and I also have a realization that no goal is unattainable, and I push myself as hard as I can.
You did a promo tour when the hardcover book came out. Has the message you want to convey and your own perspective changed much in the time between then and this paperback release? ML: My perspective has changed in the fact that I really had no idea how many people I'd be touching. To be honest with you, if I look back, I simply wanted to run this marathon and become an Ironman again so that I could thankfully recover from what happened to me. And I'll be quite honest with you, I was doing it for me. 2009 was my Ironman and '08 was my marathon, and so in the past two or three years, I am just in awe of the amount of emails I get and the amount of people who tell me I've inspired them to look at their lives differently. I frequently talk about taking an inventory check, and people look back at their lives and say, "Hey, where am I going? What am I doing? Why can't I be involved in these types of events?" So yeah, I had no idea how many people I would be able to reach just by being able to complete that marathon. It gives me an intensive pride.
Before the accident, you were a serious triathlete and runner for just a couple of years, right? You referred to yourself, right before that period, as "Fatty Matty." ML: Yes. I basically started in 2003. I always ran and played basketball to keep a minimum level of fitness for my job. I didn't realize that I was just burning the candle at both ends and that everything was catching up to me, so I never fully realized that I was getting Beer Belly Matty coming back. In 2003 and 2004 was when I really started tipping the scales and taking the fitness and endurance running more seriously. At my maximum, when I was doing more weightlifting and less running, I was about 212 (pounds). I would say the barrel chest was covering the beer belly. And then I went down to about 178. That was my peak shape, when I got hurt.
When you had your first meeting with Charlie Butler in 2007, you were talking about your desire to get back to doing a six-mile loop of Central Park. But by the following year, that had morphed into the desire to complete a marathon. Was that an instantaneous decision at some pivotal point, or was it something that evolved over a year? ML: It was a bit of a gradual change. As I started seeing progress in my rehab, and strength coming back, I started to think about who I used to be and how high I set my goals. I did three marathons before my accident, the Ironman, multiple triathlons. So I started to say to myself, "Is six miles really pushing myself?" I would have been totally happy if I'd only been able to do the six miles and been at peace with my running, but when I started seeing progress, I said, "Well, let me shoot for the marathon and bring my life back full circle, and then we'll go from there."
And as you built up to that 2008 marathon, there were people who were saying to you that perhaps you were doing this too soon, maybe you should put it off to the following year. But you had declared your intentions and were starting to get media attention and were realizing that people were getting inspired by you. There was no chance you were going to back off because you were committed in this mission not just to yourself but to the public, correct? ML: Yeah. I guess I kind of liked the fact that there was that media attention and the pressure was on me to succeed. But I knew every step I took was a success, not a failure. I wasn't overly concerned about finishing the journey, but I guess I liked the fact that they were watching so I pushed a little harder to finish.
One of the blurbs on the book cover refers to the 'dark moments' you had. You were initially resistant to the grueling therapy you had to undergo. At one point your chances of survival were low; at another, doctors felt you wouldn't walk without a cane. Your discouragement was understandable, but how were able you convince yourself to do the work to turn this situation around? Was there a 'Eureka' moment to that, or was it a gradual process? ML: (Pauses). At that moment in time, it didn't come from myself. It came from my mother. I was definitely at rock bottom, I was definitely in the darkest places I'd been since my accident. Rehab was showing me no progress. It really took my mom to give me a little smack - I describe it as tough love - to make me realize that I'm pretty much in control of this destiny. My body will heal to the best it can heal, and then I can take it as far as I want from there. That's when my attitude really started to change. I started pushing myself in therapy a little more, and I wasn't just sticking to the three-day-a-week therapy. I was doing it five days a week. I started to go back to the gym. Think of a fireman who was strong and in really good shape and then had to go to gym and try and lift five pounds. For awhile it was like, "Well, I'm not going to do that, I don't want people to see me doing it." But I finally got over that and got back to the gym. And I would have to say that turning point was from an outside source, and it was from my mother. If she didn't give me that tough love, no doubt I wouldn't have made the comeback I did.
Steve Rushin called your personal story a 'deeply human testament to the healing power of family, friends, and community.' There's a brotherhood of firefighters that meant a lot to you, but the 'community' became much larger and included all the heath care workers who helped you. But you also have to have the willingness to accept all of this help. Your survival and recovery really represent an enormous collaboration, and I'd assume the personal bonds you formed during this process were incredibly valuable. ML: Oh, unbelievable. The fact that I come from a big Irish Catholic family was a bonus, and there was always someone around, whether to let me vent or give me space or try to keep me thinking about other things. Then you add the fire department to that, and the running community. I couldn't have been luckier. And to tell you the truth, some people look at me and I'm still training and I'm still in shape and they think, "Wow, this guy's unbelievable, and everything must be fine." I mean, my life isn't fine. It's different, and I deal with those differences and I accept those differences, but it's the fact that I have the love of my family and friends and my running community and my cycling community that allows me to keep moving. In the end, we're all trying to do the same thing - one, keep ourselves in the best shape and concerned about our health, and two, we're competing. The spirit of competition. And they don't look at me as Matt who got run over by the bus. They look at me training side by side with them as a fellow athlete. And it's just phenomenal.
In terms of athletics in particular, what are some of the enduring physical problems you have to deal with? ML: I have permanent paralyzations of my right side, of my stabilizer muscles, to be exact. My adductors, abductors, and glute on my right side pretty much are nonexistent. All of my strength comes from left side of my body now, all my support. The stabilizer muscles are the heart of the core, and that's what keeps you upright. Running for me is extremely difficult. I can run about a mile and keep my body straight before I start to bend to the right as my right foot strikes the ground. So now I've been a left side dominant person.
Those are the physical ailments. My midsection was caused, so I have digestive issues. Everything was compromised so badly that my whole digestive system, for an endurance athlete, was a work in progress. So those are the things I deal with on a daily basis.
Now that you've completed that marathon and that Ironman triathlon, what does your workout routine consist of? Are you still running several days a week? ML: No. I am not running. Right now I am cycling. I guess the lack of impact that cycling gives to your joints allows me to exercise every day. I'm cycling about 250 miles a week and I plan on trying out for the U.S. Paralympic cycling team and going to the London 2012 Paralympics. I'm going to do road race and time trial.
You write, in the aftermath of your ordeal, about wanting to make each moment memorable and lasting and positive for yourself and for others. But do you ever want to give yourself a day when you don't have anything at all that you have to do, and you can just loaf? Is it important to have that as a counterbalance? ML: Absolutely. A lot of things have changed for me. One of the things that I wrote about is how I may never find that person I'll fall in love with. And I have (since) found that person, which is a wonderful thing. I was just telling her the other day that I put myself out there to help others and inspire others (to realize) that no matter what you face, you can still achieve great things. I just didn't know the impact I'd have and I'd have to get used to getting the emails. I showed her an email I got from a family of a vet wounded in Iraq. They sent me a picture of him leaving the hospital missing two legs, and (said) how my book has touched him and made him want to keep moving forward in life.
I told her (his own loved one) that I hope I have the strength to do this because it seems like this is how it's going to be for the rest of my life. There isn't a day going by that I don't get an email from someone either thanking me or asking for help or telling me they're sorry. That's probably the hardest thing about what I did, and I didn't realize it would happen. I'm glad it's happened and I'm glad I'm able to help people but you can't help everyone and sometimes it gets a little frustrating.
On some of your toughest nights as a firefighter, with several blazes to fight with little time in between, you must have felt you'd gone to the bottom of the well in terms of what you could do. And obviously, you've had that experience after your accident as a marathoner and a triathlete. You've really tapped 100 percent of your potential on a number of occasions, I would think. ML: Thank you. I would think I did. I'm still trying, so that's good. I went out to the Paralympic Nationals in Georgia and I raced as a (cycling) roadracer, and I'm going to try and make these Paralympics next year at 45 years old.

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