Retired professional rugby player and Grubber ambassador Marc Stcherbina has successful completed his first Marathon. Since a serious spinal injury ended his career, the Marathon has been at the top of Marc’s list of mental and physical challenges to fill the void created by retirement from professional sport.
Aside from his own personal enjoyment, Marc helped raise money for two worthy non-profit organizations – Play Rugby USA and Tackling Cancer Foundation. Visit his page on Crowdrise as well as picking up a great looking T-shirt from Grubber – www.weargrubber.com!
“Well it’s finally over, and despite still hobbling around in the aftermath with what feels like could be a permanent limp, I’m 100% glad I decided to run the LA Marathon. Thankfully, the two things I was dreading may happen during the race never materialized – injury, and wet weather! My troublesome right calf held firm and there was not so much as a drop of rain all day, which ensured I was able to fully enjoy a truly exhilarating experience.
My marathon wingman Dan MacPherson and I were joined by 2 other friends and we started the race at a very comfortable pace, allowing us to settle in and take in the sights, sounds and excitement as we traversed through Downtown LA and then up through Hollywood. At mile 12, it was time to take a short pit stop and both Dan and myself needed to do something neither of us were able to do prior to the race and shed a few unwanted pounds in the restroom. But with this break taking longer than expected, we finally resumed the run, not only losing that extra weight, but losing a good 15 minutes a valuable time in the process!
Feeling quite comfortable around the halfway mark, we knew it was time to step it up a notch. Dan and I gradually picked up the pace, and by about the 18 mile mark after some window shopping down Rodeo drive, we were ready to lift the level once again and bring it home. I surprised myself by reaching the 22 mile mark injury free and with plenty of gas in the tank, so there was no choice but for the two of us to finish strong down the home stretch. At mile 25 we were truly in the zone, weaving in and out of hundreds of weary finishers, when finally hitting our straps after turning the corner at Ocean Ave and spotting the finish line in the distance. This provided quite a rush, and there was no stopping the legs now from achieving their ultimate goal, and we stormed home through the sea of spectators to cross the line at a respectable time of 4 hours 25 minutes.
The 3 months of pain, sacrifice and hard work was now insignificant and I’ll never forget the emotion of crossing that finish line, particularly as only 3 years earlier I wasn’t sure if I’d even be able to walk again due to a spinal injury.
I would like to thank once again, everybody who supported me in their own way, particularly those who donated to the two wonderful organizations for which I was running to raise funds. I thoroughly enjoyed the day and who knows, I may even be crazy enough to do it all again some day in the future…”
- Marc Stcherbina
