I was coming off a disappointing marathon in the fall of 2007. So I was motivated more than ever to take another swing at going sub three hours at the Fargo Marathon. In early 2008 my running was going better than ever for that time of year and I was pretty fit. I note this because I've been told many times my fitness saved my life.

I work construction for a living. On March 7 while landing trusses on the roof of the apartment building we were working on, I fell fifty feet down an elevator shaft. While trying to remove the crane's cables the trusses slid off a wall we had laid them on. I had one foot on the pile which caused my momentum to be face first which is how I eventually landed.

I laid in an induced coma for the next seven days. On March 12 I underwent a nine and half hour surgery to reconstruct my face. My nose was severely broken. My sinuses were crushed and I had a level four La Forte fracture. The front of my skull was removed to pull my brain back so they could operate on the sinuses. Fifteen plates and fifty screws were needed to put my face back together. All this surgery was done through my mouth so I have almost no scaring. I woke from the surgery the next day and laid in incredible pain until I was released on March 18. I believe this was far ahead of schedule as originally they talked of sending me home with a hospital bed. I lost fourteen pounds while in the hospital and was down to 141. They said I lost nearly thirty percent of my muscle during my stay.

Soon the runner in me started to come out. I originally thought in a couple weeks I'll be back running. Nearly four weeks post surgery I took my first walk outside. A three miler. At this point my left leg was lagging behind and slapping as my foot hit the ground. The physical therapist thought it could be brain injury related but it turned out to be a muscle issue. I continued walking three to four times a week until being cleared by Neurology to run on May 20. At first I needed to mix walking and running but managed seventeen miles the first week back. I stayed near twenty miles for the next four weeks. Then two thirty mile weeks. On July 4, I entered the local 4 mile fun run thinking it could be the only race I'd get to do this year. I had a looming surgery which involved taking some bone from my hip and grafting it to my mouth to replace a few teeth that had been knocked out. The doctor said it would cost me another month of running. Anyway I managed 6:18 pace which gave me a huge boost.

Near the end of July I found out they would take bone from my jaw instead of my hip. Thus only needing a week off from running instead of a month. I went five days. Now I was motivated to crank up the mileage and pick a race to look forward to. The Team Ortho Monster Bash fit the bill perfectly. I worked my way up to a couple fifty five mile weeks and concentrated on hill repeats, LT runs and long run every week. The process was very hard. I had many bad days with an occasional good one mixed in. Of course as the race got near work got in the way a little. So I concentrated having a race plan and sticking to it. It worked out well for me. I enjoyed the race course and appreciate the organizers and volunteers.

Thank you,

Scott Ramberg