Daily Distraction: Watch the trailer for a new short film on runner Tommy Rivers Puzey (2024)
In late July 2020, runner Tommy Rivers Puzey, the affable iFittrainer with whom I have logged countless pandemic hours on the treadmill, was hospitalized with a respiratory issue, later diagnosed as a rare and aggressive form of cancer.
At the time, Puzey's prognosis was dire. He ended up spending two and a half months in the intensive care unit, beginning a slow comeback in November 2020when he againlearned how to sit up in bed. A year later, in November, Puzey took part inthe New York City Marathon, walking the 26.2-mile course in nine hours and 19 minutes,writing on Instagram that the feat was "the single most difficult athletic achievement that I've ever accomplished," which is saying something considering his history as a distance runner.
Now,Outside TV has released the trailer for a new short film that captures this remarkable turnaround through the eyes of Puzey's wife, Steph Catudal, and including extensive interviews with Rivs himself, who has been documenting his health saga with jarring honesty on social mediafrom the onset.
"A year ago this week I was transferred out of a bone marrow transplant unit into an inpatient rehabilitation facility. I couldn’t breathe, or eat, or swallow, or walk. I was 95 lbs and too frail to be considered a viable transplant candidate. That’s another way of saying that I would die if they attempted it," he wrote in the days before the NYC Marathon. "Death felt close. It seemed to hover over me waiting for permission to land. Sometimes it felt like I was directly under the shadow it cast. Like it was only a thought away. On the darkest days and on every day I told myself the same thing. Keep moving. You’re still here. As long as you’re moving you’re still here. As long as you’re moving it’s not allowed to touch you."
As you can see in the trailer below, Puzey is still moving, still pressing forward, which is both remarkable and something to be celebrated.
Tommy is living.” What better way to affirm that you're still living than running Boston? “Running a marathon is a time stamp in which we're able to declare 'I am here. '” Puzey says.
It features my friend Tommy Rivers Puzey, who a couple of weeks ago sent me a series of alarming voice messages from a hospital ICU in Flagstaff, where he lives with his family.
In this Tommy Rivs Puzey profile, we will discuss who Tommy Rivs is not only as an endurance athlete but as a survivor of a rare and aggressive form of lymphoma, and his triumphant story of healing.
“I eat almost completely plant based carbs for the first 8 hours of the day and then when I'm trying to “harden up” and get lean before a race, I eat almost exclusively animal protein after 4 pm until the next morning. So all carbs for the first 8 hours of the day and then no carbs for the next 16 hours.”
Beloved endurance athlete Tommy Rivers Puzey shares his “why” for running in a short film about his experience at the 2023 Boston Marathon, which the formerly-elite runner finished in 4:53:44–which is remarkable, considering that three years ago he was stricken by a rare and aggressive form of lung cancer that nearly ...
At 6 feet and an almost burly 170 pounds, he'll be easy to find among the early front-runners, and that's a good thing because Puzey's penchant for testing his limits to the extreme, for keeping the pedal to the medal until he's ready to literally drop, makes him a fan favorite wherever he's racing.
Steph Catudal felt her world unravel in 2020 when her husband, famed U.S. ultramarathoner Tommy Rivers Puzey (a.k.a. Tommy Rivs), was diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer that put him into a medically induced coma for 84 days.
After Facing Death, the New York City Marathon Has New Meaning for Tommy Rivers Puzey. The 38-year-old runner views the 26.2 miles as a celebration of his recovery and progress toward his new goal: to build a body strong enough to fight cancer, if and when it returns.
“I eat almost completely plant based carbs for the first 8 hours of the day and then when I'm trying to “harden up” and get lean before a race, I eat almost exclusively animal protein after 4 pm until the next morning. So all carbs for the first 8 hours of the day and then no carbs for the next 16 hours.”
Unlike most, he almost didn't make it to the race in the first place because he had nearly died. In July 2020, Puzey was admitted to a hospital near his home in Flagstaff, Ariz., with what was initially assumed to be Covid-19.
Gabriele Grunewald, a professional runner and rare cancer advocate, founded the Brave Like Gabe Foundation to inspire people to share stories of being brave through their own struggles while also helping to find better and more effective treatments for rare cancer.
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