Playful push uncovers childhood disease, propels marathoner

A push. That’s what guided Tyler Andrews to Atlanta for U.S. Olympic marathon trials this weekend.

From himself, to rebel against traditional model of what a distance runner should resemble coming out of high school. From his coach, who saw something special in him if he just dug deep. From his family, who constantly supported him.

And from that potentially life-saving push when he was 6 years old.

It was just a playful shove from his older bror that kcked youthful Andrews to ground. A mysterious-looking rash suddenly developed on his upper torso, arm and under one eye. That set off alarms and led to an early diagsis of aplastic anemia, a rare condition in which bone marrow fails to produce new blood cells.

His childhood ordeal helped form a “conquer-anything” mentality that started him down road to where he is today — an elite runner who takes a scientific approach to lowering his time.

“I don’t kw if it’s conscious but it definitely shaped my personality, having gone through that and come out on or side,” said t he 29-year-old from Concord, Massachusetts, who’s making his second Olympic marathon trials appearance. “re’s definitely an attitude coming through of, ‘Hey, you’ve done pretty good so far, so let’s appreciate this and be thankful we’re still here.’”

Andrews may t be most recognizable name or among favorites in Saturday’s race. Don’t be surprised, though, should he make a run at one of three U.S. men’s marathon spots for Tokyo Games.

He’s faced tough odds before.

Ask Andrews about his childhood illness and he can’t recall all that much. He remembers things like being afraid of nurses when y came into his room during nightly visits to draw blood. Or hoping to get room with better video-game console while waiting for treatments.

His parents, Tim Andrews and Valerie Cummings, recall everything. How horsing around with his bror led to detection of his disease. After his fall, Tyler Andrews developed petechiae, which are round spots that appear on skin as a result of bleeding.

y took him to hospital, where doctors made discovery of aplastic anemia.

He essentially needed to have his bone marrow rebooted. So doctors suppressed it through chemorapy and n just waited to see if it worked.

It was about a six-month process.

“A brief time in grand scheme of things,” his far said. “But in middle of it? It seemed like an eternity. y did incredible work with him.”

To this day, Andrews still sees same pediatric specialist. He sits in waiting area in tiny chairs before undergoing lab work. He’s always received same sort of report — sign of disease reappearing.

“It’s a lot of same staff and y’re always excited to see him,” his mom said. “It’s sort of like miracle child coming in.”

In high school, he went out for cross country team only because his bror participated. His best time was around 18 minutes, 30 seconds, which was solid but t sort of showing that screamed future Olympic marathon trials qualifier. He got faster at Tufts University, a Division III school in Medford, Massachusetts.

And n even faster after college.

He likes to say he threw a curve into paradigm of identifying elite runners, who usually have fast mile and two-mile splits in high school and take off from re.

“For me, it’s been a super-long and slow process,” Andrews said.

One that’s been bolstered by his engineering degree. He analyzes and maps out every aspect of running.

Mom: “He takes a very methodical, scientific approach.”

Dad: “He’s just a running nerd.”

Helping him navigate his way is his high school coach, Jon Waldron. He’s one who convinced Andrews to throw himself into sport. He’s one that showed Andrews re was a correlation between work he put in and results he got out.

“I just assumed runners were eir good or t,” said Andrews, who’s  co-director of Strive Trips, which leads student-athletes on educational running excursions. “I wasn’t that good so I wasn’t really interested. But he showed me that I could get better at this thing.”

Andrews finished 2014 Boston Marathon in a time of 2 hours, 21 minutes, 33 seconds. A month later, he won Vermont City Marathon.

“Just kept getting faster and faster and faster and faster,” his far said.

Andrews qualified for U.S. Olympic marathon trials leading into 2016 Rio Games, but didn’t have his best performance. He was dealing with exercise induced bronchial spasms that were exacerbated by heat in Los Angeles. He actually thought about dropping out, but stuck with it to finish 83rd and more than 22 minutes behind winner Galen Rupp.

“At time, I’d never dropped out of a race before,” said Andrews, w ho’s sponsored by Hoka One One and earned a silver medal at 2016 50-kilometer world championships. “I didn’t want that on my conscience.”

Leading into Olympic marathon trials, Andrews elevated his training by spending last month in Quito, Equador, which is located more than 9,000 feet above sea level. That area has become his home-away-from-home as he trains with a fleet of runners.

Given his humble running beginnings, he still finds it somewhat awe-inspiring to line up with likes of Rupp, Jared Ward, Scott Fauble and Leonard Korir, who are some of favorites to earn a ticket to Tokyo Games.

“As I get deeper and deeper into sport, you realize how many tiers above you re are,” Andrews explained. “At first, you think, ‘One more jump and I’m right re.’ n you realize re’s 10 more jumps above me.”

His parents will be on hand to cheer him on. Tim will be taking pictures, while Valerie worries until he crosses finish line.

It’s a moment to reflect, too.

“We’re just grateful every day,” his far, “that he’s here and living.”