January 2010 Tat of the Month

Bert Starke - The Flash, Calgary, Canada

The Tat of the month contest goes international again! This tattoo champion hails from Calgary, Canada, where he is an EMT. One thing you ask of your local paramedic is to be fast! Bert's got that covered, whether he's driving an ambulance or on two feet.  What helped promote Bert to the championship was the CRC's love affair with the Flash.  For me  the early 1990 TV series 'The Flash' will always hold a place in my heart. However Fruth (another CRC co-owner) says I'm garbage and it's all about the paper comics. Anyway, we are straying from the topic at hand, Bert's great Tat of the Month Championship! Here is Bert's story, we are leaving it untouched as we've already done enough talking...

I'm Bert Starke, 46 years old, a runner since 1981. As a child I was an acute asthmatic and for gym class often had to sit on the sidelines and not participate - all to avoid another asthma attack. It wasn't until I was in grade 9 that I was equipped with a Ventolin inhaler/puffer to use when I had any breathing trouble - I needed it often. In '81, my last year of high school, I began running regularly in hopes of exercising my lungs; perhaps exercise could make my lungs more healthy and lessen my bronchospasm tendencies. At the beginning I needed Ventolin puffs both before and after running. With time puffs were necessary only after running. Within 2 years of running, Ventolin became almost something of the past - necessary only when I had a cold. In '83 I ran my first marathon and since have run a total of 37 marathons, ultra-marathons, and a stair running event. From '88-'06, I found myself often to be amongst the top 10 overall or certainly top 5 in my age category in most every event I ran - I have placed many times in local events of 10k to ultra distance.
Then, in spring of 2007, over the course of a week, my feet/ankles/knees became very painful to weight bear and extremely swollen. My breathing became difficult with any exertion and my continuous wheezing began. My rest pulse which had been in the low 30s was now into the mid 80s and just trekking up a flight of stairs at a leisurely pace made me huffy-puffy and raised my pulse to 110. I remained an outpatient being investigated by the internal medicine department at a local hospital and after multiple chest xrays, CAT scans of chest/abdomen/pelvis, a bronchoscopy and lung biopsy I was diagnosed with sarcoidosis, an autoimmune condition.

Fortunately, my rheumatic joint condition went into remission within 2 months. I have been left with, however, residual breathing troubles and have wheezed continuously now for about 2-and-a-half years. It took 2 years of difficult training and daily corticosteroid medications to get my breathing under control - I still have a persistent wheeze but most days are "good breathing days"; few do I consider "bad days". This summer I ran my first event since autumn '06 - a 10 miler in 64 minutes without any organized speed work training. Not bad, and I placed in my age category. Hey, and it wasn't even the best of breathing days. I had 7 weeks of speed training (lung training) to prepare for my fist marathon since fall of '05 (Lausanne, Switzerland - 2:56). Then the Edmonton Marathon went almost perfectly in August - a cold summer day and my breathing was nearly perfect (relatively speaking). I only had, though, too much energy left at the end. I finished in 2:58 and was filled with much emotion - I couldn't help but sit down and sob for a couple of minutes; my running and my passion, was back. I had placed 20th overall and 3rd in my age category. This was more meaningful than even my first Boston.

Now I'm a paramedic and have several friends and peers with tattoos. I'd several times thought, "ya, one day I'll get a little tattoo, something relating to running, of course". But for my birthday in July I was jokingly given by a friend a tattoo coupon to redeem at the Smilin' Buddha tattoo shop. After some online research I decided upon "The Flash". My speed is almost back. I'm 46 and my performance isn't succumbing to age yet. The Flash, with his history of lightning quickness, tattooed on my leg will help me maintain my running passion and speed.

My apologies for the very long story. Cheers."

No apologies needed, Bert! We always enjoy the stories behind the Tattoo.

Congrats to Bert on winning a fine CRC gift card! 

Do you want to be the running tat of the month? Send us a picture at info@columbusrunning.com or stop by the store. Please let us know why, how, and when you got the tattoo...

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