Aug 2, 2000

Back in February I made a new friend of a new runner from Eugene, Tim Ayers, who was training for his first marathon. "I've only been running a little over a year now," he said at the time. "I never ran in high school or college, but was saving it for a later stage in my life."

By then Tim was 46 and coming to terms with a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease, which causes tremors and loss of coordination. "There are prescribed drugs that help reduce the symptoms," he said, "but I've chosen not to take them yet. Instead I'm trying some alternate remedies, and one of them is running."

He reports now on his marathon: "I ran one mile and walked a minute consistently throughout the marathon and was able to sprint at the end with a smile on my face and a time of 4:43.

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