Marcus White: Outrunning lung capacity issues

Marcus White is relatively nonchalant about his right lung collapsing three times since 2010.

“It’s kind of painful,” he said. “It feels like Rice Krispies popping when it happens. It’s definitely something I don’t want to go through again.”

He’s just as nonchalant about having done something that puts that same lung to the test – road racing, and more specifically the three marathons he’s completed in that same time span.

During an interview five days after completing the 2015 Rehoboth Marathon in a time of 3 hours, 8 minutes, 25 seconds, White said, the doctors said to go on about living life as normal.

“So I have,” he said.

White’s lung first collapsed in August 2010. White, 36, said he noticed something unusual while eating a plate of Chinese food after finishing a shift at the Summer House, where’s he’s been the head chef since 2008.

“I didn’t think anything of it, so I went to bed. Then I woke up at 4 a.m. with shortness of breath, took a couple Benadryl and tried to go back to bed,” he said. “Two hours later, I was at the hospital.”

After a five-day stint in the hospital, White said he was sent home after the doctors drained his chest cavity and the lung mended itself.

The second collapse occurred a month later. This time, said White, the doctors performed a small surgery and he was sent home in two days with an 80 percent chance that he wouldn’t have any more issues.

The doctors said to go back to living a normal life, he said.

According the Mayo Clinic’s website, a collapsed lung, or pneumothorax (noo-mo-THOR-acks), occurs when air leaks into the space between your lungs and chest wall; This air pushes on the outside of your lung and makes it collapse. The website says some of the most at risk individuals for suffering a collapsed lung are tall, thin men, between the ages 20 and 40. White can check off all those boxes.

The Mayo Clinic says collapsed lung can be caused by a blunt or penetrating chest injury, certain medical procedures involving your lungs, or damage from underlying lung disease. Or it may occur for no obvious reason.

Living a normal life

For White, living a normal life meant being athletically active. He said he played soccer in high school, but he ran so much he grew to despise it. After school, he said, he did the gym thing to stay in shape, but grew tired of the scene.

White’s introduction back into running, could have also been the end if he took it too seriously. He said he and a bunch of Summer House coworkers signed up for the 2012 DE-feet Breast Cancer 5K at the Tanger Outlets. In preparation for the race, he said he ran three times and finished dead last among his fellow Summer Housers.

But instead of being deterred, White challenged himself to get better. He said running became a way to be competitive with himself. He said there was always a time to beat.

White’s first marathon was the 2013 Rehoboth Marathon. He said he picked a 16-week program, stayed with it and finished the race in 3 hours, 16 minutes, 3 seconds.

He said he likes the Rehoboth Marathon because the beginning of training, when the mileage is shorter, is done during the end of the summer months. By the time someone is getting into the long training runs, he continued, it’s perfect outside.

White continued to run, setting his sites on the 5Ks, 10Ks, 10-milers and other road races of various lengths that seem to take place 52 weeks a year in the Cape Region.

Third time’s not a charm

All of White’s running came to a halt, when in August 2014, his right lung collapsed for a third time.

It was on a day off from work and he was coming home from the grocery store. He said he felt something pop and knew immediately what had happened; but he did not act immediately.

“I knew what it was, and I just thought to myself that I could wait it out and that I was going to be OK,” he said. “I knew I was going to have to go back to the hospital, but I didn’t know for how long. My wife and went to the beach that afternoon. She wasn’t happy when I told her later what was going on. I was hoping it would get better on its own.”

The next day he checked himself into Beebe Healthcare in Lewes, where the doctors performed the same operation that was before. Twelve days after that, he was transferred to Christiana Hospital in Newark because his lung wasn’t healing and the doctors couldn’t figure out why.

At Christiana, the doctors performed another surgery, which White said was the most painful thing he’s ever experienced. He explained the doctors inserted a quarter-sized tube into the right side of his torso and proceeded to inject a powder that reacted with his lungs to create new lining, plugging the hole.

“It felt like my lung was on fire,” he said. “It was awful.”

In all, he spent nearly a month in the hospital the third time around, and, he said, he could barely walk to the end of the hospital hallway without getting short of breath.

Moving on from setback

Again, the doctors told White to go on living his life as normal.

“They told me to not limit my life because of this,” he said.

White had planned on making his second marathon the 2014 Rehoboth Marathon, but didn’t have the strength to train properly. White, already a thin guy, said he lost 30 pounds while in the hospital.

“I was still just trying to gain my weight back,” he said.

Undeterred, White set his sites on a marathon in Virginia Beach in March 2015, which he finished in 3 hours, 32 minutes, 56 seconds.

“It was the coldest winter ever to have to train through,” he said laughing.

White said his wife Jennifer, who co-owns Rehoboth’s Downtown Cowgirl, supports his running, despite the continued lung issues.

“She was hesitant, but she also knows it’s what I wanted to do,” he said, also acknowledging that a two-hour long training run on his days off takes time away from them as a couple.

It’s been more than a year since White last suffered from a collapsed lung and he didn’t waste the opportunity to train. His 2015 Rehoboth Marathon time was good enough to qualify him for the 2017 Boston Marathon.

At this point, White says he’s done a complete 180 on how he feels about running, evening know about his lung issues.

“My day always feels better when I get my run in,” he said. “It’s a stress reliever. I could have a 10-hour day ahead of me at work, and if I’ve gotten my run in, it doesn’t matter.”