Episode 5 - Matt

It has been evident for sometime now that Matt has been walking on borrowed time. The terrain we have encountered here in Pennsylvania is absolutely insane. The distance and speed we are covering in these mountainous hills are nothing less than miraculous. Even Lorrie and I are going to have to step up to the plate if we want to continue to drive these guys to do better.

Stage four has brought out a hard to describe energy throughout the entire team. At first glance one would think we are all falling apart, but when I stop and really observe the team I truly think we may have gown closer than ever. The entire ambience of stage five is one of anxiousness. These are serious hills that are taking their toll on everyone. I think when the team sees guys like Mike and Matt struggle it scares the rest of them. I wish the team didn’t measure their individual performance against what others in the team are doing… but I would have done the same thing.

When Matt and some others started to struggle, everyone got unfocussed and panicked. Matt had a few days he absolutely couldn’t continue walking due to inflammation and discomfort. He was being as conservative as he possible could with his walks and at the same time he was trying to not to fall back as not to hurt the group’s chances of making it to DC on time. In other words, Matt would fall a little behind only to catch up the next day, but that was wreaking havoc with his knee.

One morning early in stage four Matt finally came clean and told us his knee is starting to fail. He tried not to make a big deal out of it but it was obvious that he was trying to say his last good bye’s in case his knee gave out in the middle of the stage. If anyone left in the middle of the stage there was no opportunity given for the marchers to say goodbye. Sure enough, about two days later, Matt was unable to continue. The medic and I both had a chance to run back to his position and Brian (the medic) and I both felt like it was a great decision to go to the hospital for an x-ray. Hopefully an x-ray and some other tests would give us an indication what was causing the inflammation and soreness. Even with a background in exercise science and physical therapy, it is hard to do a field assessment on a 400 pound pro-wrestler’s knee.

Once at the hospital it was obvious what Matt had been dealing with for the last month and a half. The doctors told Matt he wasn’t able to continue without destroying his knees completely. Matt was devastated but he knew if he was going to return home and have any hope of meeting his weight loss goals he would have to quit fat march and allow for his knees to heel.

The rest of the team got the news later that night at the campground. Matt was such a motivating and encouraging part of our team. This was really going to change the entire dynamic of the team. But we will overcome. The same way we have been overcoming the harsh circumstances throughout this entire walk. This would prove to be no different. That isn’t to say that we didn’t lose a great man today or that we aren’t going to miss Matt tremendously, I am only saying we have to continue walking regardless of how this loss affects us.