Las Vegas Int’l Marathon: Local George Dodge beats the odds

Tim Graham

Friday, Jan. 30, 1998 | noon

There came a time when George Dodge realized he couldn't drag his feet anymore.

He was overweight. He lacked confidence. He required discipline.

And nobody seemed to understand he had dreams.

Dodge used to be an average guy, but was forced to cope with a frightening condition. An automobile accident put him in a coma and later a wheelchair. It left him with brain damage and partial paralysis on his left side.

But he loved to run.

"I told myself 'I'm never going to be in no Olympics. I'm never going to be no Jim Thorpe,'" says the third-generation Las Vegan. "But I just can't sit still. I gotta keep moving."

On Sunday, the 37-year-old father of eight will compete in the Las Vegas Invitational Half Marathon. It will mark the culmination of nine months of training with local Special Olympics coach Joe Booze.

Dodge, who now runs eight-minute miles, is asked if he is prepared for his first certified race.

"I'm already there," he replies.

But he almost wasn't anywhere.

On Jan. 9, 1989, Dodge was riding with his brother in a pickup truck driven by their father. They were on their way to another job for their family-owned roofing business.

They never arrived.

Another car ran a stop sign at the intersection of Philadelphia Avenue and Lamont Street. The car clipped the Dodge truck and sent it spinning. None were wearing seat belts, and all were thrown from the truck.

"I don't know about it," Dodge says in a patter that is sometimes slurred and stuttered but always lively. "I only know what my dad told me. I was in a coma."

Dodge's father suffered broken ribs and punctured a lung. George's brother also suffered a head injury, but brain damage was averted by a medically induced coma.

But George Dodge was in the worst shape of all.

"Before the paramedics got there, some people covered me up with a blanket," Dodge says, pulling an imaginary cover over his head. "I had no pulse. People thought I was dead."

He was comatose for two weeks.

The 1977 Eldorado High graduate -- the same one who played football and ran sprints for the Sundevils, became an Eagle Scout at 14 and ran 5 1/2-minute miles in the Army -- had to learn how to live again.

He didn't know how to walk. He didn't know how to go to the bathroom. He couldn't comprehend that he was married. He didn't remember his children's names.

As time progressed, so did Dodge. Although he still is partially paralyzed on his left side and can never work again -- he receives a monthly disability check -- he did regain some control. He also regained his weight and ballooned to 230 pounds.

That's when he decided to run. He eventually joined the Special Olympics, but Booze didn't realize what Dodge was after.

"I used to get frustrated with him," says Booze, shaking his head with an expression of someone who just bit into a lemon. "I thought he was an ill-tempered, out-of-control person. I thought he didn't like authority, that he was anti-social.

"I called him off the track one time and told him to run slow with the pack. So he took off like a jackrabbit. I yelled 'Dodge, what's your problem? Why can't you do what I ask you to do?' I thought we were going to fight right there.

"He wanted to do more and was mentally and physically ahead of the group."

Booze, who is the assistant director of the Las Vegas International Marathon and a veteran of several races himself, eventually saw what Dodge was about.

"So I said 'If you'll control your temper, I'll help you reach that goal.'"

Booze claims Dodge has controlled his emotions, that Dodge is much more pleasant to be around because of running.

Dodge, who stands 5-foot-10, now weighs 145 pounds.

What Booze couldn't control was his eager student's sense of moderation. Although Dodge is instructed to run around six miles a day so as not to overtrain, he sometimes does as many as 18. He also lifts weights.

"I like to look at the veins popping out in my arms," Dodge says. "My wife thinks I'm a goofball."

Dodge, still using the same pair of shoes he got last month, ran his first half marathon Dec. 20 in Las Vegas. He finished the race in 1:44:44, but Booze contends the course was short.

Nevertheless, Dodge is using that time as his benchmark Sunday.

"Joe Booze wants me to run under 1:50," Dodge says. "But I want to average better than eight minutes (a mile), preferably 7:50. I want to go faster than 1:44."

And there's no question Dodge views Sunday's race differently than a Special Olympics.

"I told my wife I was going to run my rear end off as well as I can run it. This is international. This is big-time. I'm going to give it my all."

* WHAT: 32nd Las Vegas International Marathon.

* WHEN: Half Marathon 6:45 a.m.; Wheelchair 7:15 a.m.; Marathon 7:30 a.m.

* START: State Highway 604, 3.5 miles south of Jean.

* FINISH: Vacation Village.

* MEN'S RECORD: 2:12:37 by Frank Plasso Jr.

* WOMEN'S RECORD: 2:32:22 by Marzena Helbik.

archive