A MESSAGE FROM Michael Kushner's NYC Marathon Fundraiser - SWB Charity
Hello friends and family, friends of friends, strangers and friends of strangers. I'm here to ask you for money. In November 2024, I'm going to run the NYC marathon, and I was lucky enough to be accepted to run for the nonprofit organization Soccer Without Borders. If you read nothing more, know that any donation no matter how small, is so appreciated and it's going towards helping underserved youth with a toolkit to overcome obstacles to growth, inclusion, and personal success.
The SWB mission, as I'll get into in a bit, was inspired by Nelson Mandela's quote "sport has the power to change the world." Sports have impacted my life beyond words and I wouldn't be who I am today without the years and years of being influenced by incredible coaches I've had along the way. I played baseball, basketball and football for around 12 years, and college football for 4 years -- and last year played my first full season of soccer in NYC. Learning to play soccer as an adult with other extremely talented players was a humbling experience and taught me how, even as a non-skilled player, one can contribute to the team and feel impactful. SWB believe in the power of soccer, the world's universal language, to create positive change for individuals, families, communities, and the world. Their mission is to use soccer as a vehicle for positive change for underserved youth. Their programs are designed for young people to develop agency, a sense of belonging, and the skills to contribute, building social capital and strengthening positive identity development.
Why am I running my first marathon at age 39?! Truthfully, I've always hated running (outside of the necessity of training for team sports), and until 4 months ago, the longest distance I'd ever run was around 2 miles, which was probably 20 years ago. I always thought of running as a means to an end, rather than the thing in and of itself. If you would have told me a few years ago that I would be training to run 26.2 miles, I would have told you it's just not possible. I have two herniated discs in my lower back, which has led to debilitating pain where oftentimes I couldn't even walk. This was a huge problem, because all of my life I'd been used to moving, jumping, sprinting, and playing sports. My biggest goal was to stay away from spinal surgery, so in those 10 years of pain I tried pretty much anything you can think of. I went to Düsseldorf, Germany for a procedure called Regenokine — a treatment for joint pain and inflammation that involves injecting a your own blood into the affected area. The blood is treated to produce an anti-inflammatory protein called IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra), which is meant to change the body's inflammatory response and improve cartilage damage. It helped reduce inflammation for sure, but wasn't a long term solution. I tried ELDOA everyday for 3 years, which is a training program that involves intense myofascial stretches to improve spinal health and joint function. I tried excruciating deep tissue massages (Rolfing), countless chiropractors, acupuncture, cold plunges, saunas...literally everything. Some worked better than others (I'd say ELDOA was the most successful out of the bunch), but I still had moments where if I stepped wrong or bent over in a weird way, I would have a sharp pain shoot up my spine and then put me out for a couple of weeks. I was getting to the point of just accepting that my discs were going to continue to degenerate, and that I wouldn't be able to do the physical things I could do years ago. This was a very dark and scary thought, especially since I felt young and healthy otherwise. And I couldn't help projecting -- If I feel like this now, what's it going to be like when I'm 75? I thought I'd try one last thing (which also wasn't the solution) which was to go to Medellin Colombia to get a Mesenchymal stem cells treatment (MSCs). Mesenchymal stem cells are derived from human umbilical cords that are used for treatment, which can signal the body’s own cells to promote healing, modulate the immune system, control inflammation, and repair damaged tissues. Much like Regenokine, it helped reduce inflammation, but didn't solve the underlying problem that would put me right back into pain. This leads me to the my solution, called PRI.
Disclaimer: this is all just my own experience. I have no evidence on whether things work or not other than my own pain threshold and what I'm able to do day to day. I don't know if all of these things PLUS this next thing led to success, or if it was just the last thing. Or everything PLUS diet, sleep etc. I'm sure it's all tied together. But the variable that seemed to solve everything for me is a program called PRI. When I was living in LA, a friend named Johnny Wu introduced me to a physical therapist in Pasadena named Dr. Locatelli. He said this guy is magic and helps the toughest cases get their lives back. I've tried everything else, so I figured why not. PRI stands for Postural Restoration Institute which was established in 2000 to explore and explain the science of postural adaptations, asymmetrical patterns and the influence of polyarticular chains of muscles.
Dr. Loc showed me exercises and educated me on training the body to relearn how to walk, how to solve pain episodes in 4 minutes, what shoes to wear and how to use breathwork to relieve pain. It was life changing for me. I was moving back to NY in 2022 so I asked Dr. Loc if he knew anyone in New York who was also PRI certified. He sent me to Dr. Brad Gildon at IPA Manhattan Physical Therapy, who became the next most important person in my life. I worked with Brad for 5 months. I've never met anyone like Brad before, someone who truly understood how herniated discs could affect your entire life, and he was the first doctor to tell me that this was going to get better, not worse, if I did the right 5 things -- Sleep, meditation, diet, breathwork, and physical training (PRI and strength training). He was as much of a physical therapist as he was a mentor and coach, and I'll forever be grateful to Brad.
After 5 months told me I had "graduated" and said I was ready for physical training outside of the office. This is when he introduced me to Boris. Boris Dugandzic is a 6'5 Croatian badass who played pro basketball and is extremely smart and humble. He's constantly readjusting based on the things he sees in person. He pays attention to "signals not noise". I've now been working with him for over a year and once again, life changing human. He took me from theoretical to practical. He pushes me hard, but started out very slowly. He knew he had to gain my trust and rewire my brain to believe that my back could handle the training. Fast forward to last year and he asked, "what do you want to do?". I said, do you think my back could handle a season of soccer? He said yes of course, if we train right for it. I played a season of soccer, which was intense for me since I've never played before, and it was with very skilled players. I finished the season with no injuries and my back felt great. In December of 2023, he asked again, 'what's your next goal? what do you want to do?'. I replied, 'do you think my back could handle a marathon?' He told me yes, as long as we train correctly and give ourselves enough time. I told him that I'd have to really think about this commitment before I told him that was what I wanted to do. After the new year I came back and said, let's do it. Let's train for the NYC Marathon. He was stoked. I was scared.
What I didn't realize, was how difficult it was to be accepted into the NYC Marathon. 165,000 people from around the world apply. I applied for the lottery, didn't get in. I was pretty bummed, and was starting to lose hope that I would be able to do this. Luckily, I applied for one of the 10 bibs that SWB had to offer, and got an email back from Sophia to have an interview. We immediately connected and I got really excited to potentially be a part of the team. I was over the moon when she emailed me back saying that I had been accepted, and welcome to the team. So here we are, if you've made it this far, I will buy you an ice cream cone. Sorry about the book, but thought it was important to give context to why I was running, and some of the history leading up to it. Last thing I'll say is -- if you have back pain and want to talk about it, please reach out to me. michael.p.kushner@gmail.com.
https://www.soccerwithoutborders.org/
