Good Times, Bad Times: The Ric Munoz Story, Part 2

“Good times, bad times, you know I’ve had my share … “
- Led Zeppelin, “Good Times Bad Times” (video after post)

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If you tuned in yesterday, you read the tale of Ric Munoz, an HIV-positive ultrarunner who gained a measure of celebrity from a landmark Nike commercial in the 1990s. Today’s post is a companion piece to that article, offering a little more insight into the journey Ric has experienced as a runner and an HIV advocate.

One of the things that registers with me most profoundly is inadvertent heroism: regular people who unexpectedly face extraordinary circumstances, and rise to the occasion by transforming themselves or others (or often both) in order to overcome the adversity that was thrust upon them. Ric fits that description fairly well; he’d be the first to tell you that he didn’t seek the twists and turns he encountered, but rather, one event led to another, and then to another, and so on. And before you know it, he’s out there inspiring people.

As for the commercial: there’s only one recording of it available on YouTube, and the picture quality is honestly pretty bad. However, it’s decent enough that you can appreciate its visual and emotional impact, from the serenity of Ric floating through Malibu Canyon State Park to the message delivered silently but powerfully with title cards. From my standpoint, the impact was powerful enough that when I saw Ric’s name again some 15 years later, the mental connection wasn’t very far out of reach.

“HIV Runner”, by Nike (click to play):



And now, some excerpts from my interview with Ric Munoz, an everyday runner who has overcome more than his share of obstacles.


Q: Give me a brief overview of your running life before the Nike ad was made. At what age did you start running? What led you to start?

A: I began running in the spring of 1983 at age 25. It was strictly a fluke thing that got me started as I had zero experience (or interest) in the sport. Everything I’ve ever accomplished I owe completely to my friend Teri Tait Gabrielsen – her dogged determination to get me to run thoroughly shaped my destiny.


Q: What are some of your PRs and proudest achievements?

A: 5K: 17:26, June 1992. 10K: 35:40, July 1992. Half Marathon: 1:20:09, January 1993. Marathon: 2:44:13, June 1992

Some of my proudest running achievements, in no particular order:

* 33 sub-3-hour marathon finishes, including 4 sub-2:50s;
* Lifetime average finishing time for the 155 marathons I’ve completed: 3:17:44
* Marathon victory (2:53:21) in December ’98 in Olympia, WA;
* 17 Boston Marathon finishes
* Finishing the 2010 Mother Road 100-Miler in Oklahoma in 29:43:30. I ran the first 50 miles in 9:44:33 while the second half took me 19:58:57 – I felt like quitting at least 100 times, especially when the nighttime temperature got down to 30 degrees. This was a defining moment in my ultramarathoning career – I’ve never felt more miserable in a race. But I got to experience how instantly that misery disappears when the finish line is crossed.
* Running the final 4 miles of the 1991 New York City Marathon backwards – completely unplanned - after my knee blew out at mile 22.

2:44 marathon PR at Grandma's, 1992

Q: What was the your understanding of HIV when you were diagnosed, especially regarding treatment options and life expectancy? What was the experience of some of your HIV+ friends? How did your family react?

A: Friends and acquaintances of mine began dying as early as 1982 and because their deaths were so rapid, I assumed the life expectancy would be very brief after diagnosis. This was scary stuff for a 23-year-old to embrace, but there really wasn’t anything to do except wait and see.

Our running club (Los Angeles Frontrunners) lost at least a dozen members in the 80s alone. Just imagine your own running club and how you’d react to suddenly losing that many members in the space of a few years. For me personally, my two best friends died, one in ’87 at age 33 and the other in ’89 at age 32. It became a mentally challenging game of me waiting for the “other shoe to drop.”

After Ric's first marathon in 1983, with Frontrunner teammate Brad Radke

Despite all this, I remained relatively calm, primarily because I studied the co-factors that the medical community identified as accelerants. That specifically included people who used recreational drugs and drank beer/wine/alcohol (such as my two best friends had done) – they were at much higher risk to develop the full-blown disease. I had not (and have never) indulged in any of those things, so that gave me a ray of hope that I would be spared somehow.

I never discussed the HIV with my family, which consisted of one sole relative, my mother. She was dealing with her own health crisis at the time (terminal breast cancer), so I didn’t want to add to her burden by worrying her with my own. She ultimately died in early 1989. The experience of witnessing how she faced her challenge head-on helped me tremendously to cope with the HIV; her emotional response to the cancer was stoic, matter-of-fact and seemingly fearless. The time I spent with her over the last few months of her life taught me a lot about her mental toughness and I vowed to keep learning from her example as the uncertain future with HIV loomed.


Q: What has your HIV treatment regimen been like over the years? What is your treatment regimen today? And if it's OK to ask, how much does your medical treatment cost from year to year, and do you have any resources to help you afford it?

A: Antiretroviral drugs known as protease inhibitors (PIs) were introduced in the late 90s, and these were the drugs that righted my rapidly sinking ship. I firmly believe that if the PIs had not become available when they did, I very likely would have succumbed to the HIV right around the time I was dealing with the cryptosporidiosis. Comparing notes with other HIV patients over the years, I came to learn the PIs arrived just in the nick of time for them, too. For many of us who managed to “hang on” throughout the 80s and most of the 90s, the PIs definitely saved our lives.

Once my immune system was revitalized by the PI regimen, I was able to eventually stop that regimen; the PI drugs were extremely uncomfortable to take, as many as 18 pills per day, with very unpleasant gastrointestinal side effects. When the NRTI (nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor) class of drugs were introduced, my doctor shifted my treatment to those. These are the treatment drugs I’ve used since the early 2000s.

The combined cost of the two drugs I’m currently on is roughly in the neighborhood of $15,000 per year. Fortunately – and I must stress the word fortunately – health insurance provided by my employer covers the lion’s share of those costs, along with my ongoing check-ups. My husband Seth is HIV positive, and is also covered by my health plan – we’re very fortunate that my employer provides health insurance to same-sex spouses.


Q: Do you have any stories about getting recognized from the commercial?

A: One thing I took great pride in happened about 3 years after the commercial debuted. I was running the Blue Angel Marathon in Pensacola, FL in February ’98 on the day of my 40th birthday (the first and only time I got to do a “birthday” race). My goal that day was to just relax and have a fun, stress-free race. About 10 miles into it, a young man in his early 20s tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I was “that guy in the Nike commercial.” I replied yes and added how amazed I was that he remembered. He then asked if I was trying to break 3 hours, and hoped that I was, because that was his goal. But he’d never run that fast before and wasn’t sure he could do it on his own.

I told him I wasn’t planning to run hard (it was my birthday!). I nevertheless saw how important it seemed to be to him, so I finally said “OK” and in offering to pace him, I told him to be prepared to endure a fair amount of discomfort and pain – the latter, I said, would be temporary while the memory of a PR would last forever. Sixteen miles later, he finished in 2:59:02, just ahead of my 2:59:05 and he earned first place in his age division. Helping a complete stranger almost half my age achieve that goal was one of the highlights of my career and a great birthday present to myself – all thanks to the Nike commercial.


Q: What are your running-related goals now? Are there any particular races or events you want to do, or adventures you want to take on?

A: I think the only worlds left to conquer are the multi-day events (48-hour, 72-hour, etc.). I’d also like to run under 20 hours for 100 miles, but that’s a pretty lofty goal, especially for an old mongrel like me. I timed out at mile 35 of this year’s Western States 100, so I’d like to go back to that race one year and complete the whole distance.

At Western States in 2011; Ric has unfinished business there.

My favorite race of all time is the Comrades ultra in South Africa. I would run that race every year forever if I could – my three finishes there were the most fun I’ve ever at any race, anywhere, anytime. The Spartathlon 153-miler in Greece is my only dream race, but I’m much too slow to have any hope of finishing, so I’ll have to experience that one vicariously through others.


Q: Anything else you'd like to tell me about your running, your health status or medical experience, World AIDS Day, or anything else?

A: Here’s a non-running story you might enjoy, especially because you’re a fan of popular music:

Long before running and HIV entered my life, I was a rock and roll super-fan during my teenage years. Along the way I made the acquaintance of Cameron Crowe, a staff writer at Rolling Stone during his own teenage years. Being a fellow Southern California resident, Cameron would see me at many of the major rock concerts that rolled through the L.A. area. One day, in September 1975, he asked me to sit down for an interview and explained he was doing a story for Rolling Stone that would focus on super-fans like me. The story ultimately never ran in the magazine, but I got to keep the photos Cameron’s photographer took that day during the interview. Cameron and I lost touch, of course, as we grew older.

Fast forward to the fall of 2000. I’m sitting in my neighborhood cineplex enjoying the latest film written and directed by Cameron, “Almost Famous.” About 30 minutes into the film, a character appears on the screen. It takes me a microsecond to realize that the character is me, circa 1975! The scene introduces a crazed Led Zeppelin fan marching up and down the lobby of the Continental Hyatt House Hotel while crowing about how the members of Led Zeppelin touched the pen he’s holding in his hand.

That very same scene actually happened in March of 1975, when I ditched high school and hung out in the lobby of that hotel hoping to get the members of Led Zeppelin to autograph one of their album covers. And when I succeeded in doing so, I walked around the lobby of the hotel exclaiming, “Robert Plant touched this pen! Jimmy Page touched this pen! John Paul Jones touched this pen!” Cameron was hanging in the lobby and pulled me aside to get the story of how I got the band members to sign my album cover.

Who knew that 25 years later that scene would appear in his movie? And if there was any doubt in my mind (there was zero doubt) that the character in the film was me, when the end credits began to roll, they listed the character as VIC MUNOZ (portrayed by actor Jay Baruchel). Not that I needed any proof, but there it was – I assume he didn’t use Ric Munoz for the character name because he didn’t get permission from me to use my real name.

It was nonetheless a thrill to see it unfold on screen. It’s now 11 years later and I still can’t believe Cameron put me in his film. I’ve tried reaching him over the years to thank him, but to no avail.

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Obviously, I owe a huge thanks to Ric for being the focus of my series this week. And in honor of Ric’s super-fandom, one Led Zeppelin tune seems like a perfectly fitting title.

Led Zeppelin, “Good Times, Bad Times” (click to play):





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