ROAD TO HIGHER PLACES

Monterey County Herald, The (CA) - April 24, 2008

Author/Byline: DENNIS TAYLOR

Section: Top Story

Page: A1

The finish line will be a long way off — 26.2 miles, in fact — when the starting gun fires at Sunday's Big Sur International Marathon, but Brian Dickinson , a first-time marathoner, says he isn't even slightly worried about getting there. 

"Feeling the pain isn't an option," he says with a laugh. "You do that later." 

Easier said than done, most people would say, but Dickinson probably isn't a whole lot like most people. The 33-year-old Snoqualmie, Wash., resident spent six years as a helicopter rescue diver for the Navy. He'll swim from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco in August. And he's planning to climb the seven summits — the highest mountain peaks on the planet — beginning with Denali in Alaska next year and, if all goes well, Everest in 2010. In the process, he hopes to raise $1.4 million in sponsorship money for needy families. 

And the Big Sur Marathon? Honestly, it's just part of his training process. 

"I'm a very goal-oriented person, and completing the Big Sur Marathon, for me, will be a sense of accomplishment," he says. "In terms of mental preparation for the seven summits, I see this as a step toward accomplishing something bigger — one more notch in my résumé, I guess. 

"For me, there won't really be a pass-fail option on Sunday. I'm going to pass, even if I sustain an injury along the way." 

That mental toughness no doubt stems, at least in part, from his military career. The training he endured to become a helicopter rescue swimmer ranks with the process of becoming a Navy Seal in degree of difficulty. The work was intense and dangerous. But Dickinson loved the job, and it is very much a part of who he is — something he discovered in 1998, while he was on liberty, fishing with his older brother, Rob, in a remote, very rapid section of Oregon's Rogue River. 

"I happened to look across the water and saw three heads bobbing out there," he says. "Turns out there was a little girl, maybe 4 or 5 years old, who was playing too close to the rapids and fell in. Her mom, who couldn't swim at all, dived in after her and got swept away. Then a retired fireman, who was in his 70s, saw them and he jumped in, too." 

Dickinson threw down his fishing rod, tore off his shirt and dived in. He rescued the child first, then her mother, then the old man. 

"I was sitting there on the river bank, checking the old guy's vital signs and my brother walked over," he remembers. "And he said, 'That was the coolest thing I ever saw.'" 

Dickinson retired from the Navy in 1999, earned his master's degree and began a career in the computer industry (he's a systems engineer for Cisco Systems). For him, that sedentary lifestyle created a void that needed to be filled — which probably was the genesis of his desire to climb every 18,000-foot peak on the planet. 

His wife, JoAnna, a social worker, inspired him to combine that quest with a fundraising effort for needy families, which only adds to the personal reward he will get from the project. 

"To be able to hike those extreme mountains and also give money back ... I just thought it was a great idea," he says. "And I've already talked to a lot of business people who want to be a part of that." 

So the adventure begins. After running the Big Sur Marathon and swimming in the Escape From Alcatraz, he plans to take on Mount Rainier, a 14,000-foot peak in Washington. He'll go to Alaska to climb Denali next year, then he'll try for the summit of Everest. 

"A lot of people who have normal lives don't understand the desire to do that. They just see the risk and danger that's involved," says Dickinson , who has a 4-year-old daughter, Emily, and an 18-month-old son, Jordan. "I feel like my background and my personality gives me an ability to cope with certain extreme situations a little differently than most people. 

"For me, honestly, one of the hardest parts about doing the seven summits will be the time I have to spend apart from my family. Right now, whenever I take a business trip of a week or less, it just kills me. But they're proud of me, and this is for a very good cause, so I feel like it's worth doing." 

As for Big Sur , he says he hasn't really set a time goal. 

"Originally, I wanted to finish under three hours and qualify for Boston, but I'm more focused on doing this race without sustaining an injury," he says. "I'm pretty competitive, though, so if I see everybody else running hard, I might just take off."