MASON - Ron Berby wasn't drunk when he ran the Boston Marathon for the first time.

But he was drunk before and drunk after.

"I was drunk on the plane on the way over there, I was pretty much drunk the whole weekend," said Berby, who posted a time of 2:54:57 in the 1977 marathon. "It's run on a Monday. I was drunk the night before, and I wasn't across the finish line for more than hour before I was back in my hotel room taking a shower and getting some beer in me."

The former Michigan State cross country runner battled alcoholism for 14 years. The last drop of alcohol hit his taste buds on Jan. 19, 1978, just before 6 a.m.

And after getting sober, Berby went on to have a marathon career that finished with 221 completed races - all of which are written out on a yellow notebook he's had for over 30 years, except for one that he forgot to log some years back.

"When I went back to running seriously, I pictured this gradual process where I'd drink less and run more," said the 74-year-old Berby, who chronicled his life in a 1995 book, "Strides". "I thought drinking would sort of disappear, a nice process. No. It had to get nasty."

Innocence 

Growing up in Milford, Berby would often travel to the city's waterhole in the summers for entertainment. It was two-and-a-half miles from his home. At age 12, he realized running there would give him more time to play by the water. Though there were other reasons.

"I started running, really, so I could see girls in bathing suits," Berby said. "I was sort of thinking I'm going to prepare for high school running. And that first time when I was 12, I'd go out for runs ... I might go out for a two- or three-mile run because it was cool. It was the 1950s, and a 12-year-old wasn't supposed to do that."

Berby eventually landed at Michigan State in 1960. And as a walk-on on the cross country team, he helped the Spartans capture Big Ten titles in 1962 and 1963, as well as an Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of America title in 1961.

The Spartans had won eight national titles between 1939 and Berby's arrival in 1960. East Lansing hosted the first 26 (1938-64) NCAA men's cross country national championship meets.

"We felt like failures," said Berby, who was given a small academic scholarship to attend Michigan State. "We didn't win the whole 'shebang (national championship).'"

Up to this point, alcohol had not played a role in Berby's life. He was too focused on running, so much so that his grades slipped and he lost the partial academic scholarship he was given by the school.

Berby said he drank just three or four times in college. But he noticed the problem then. Every time, he felt the urge to drink until he was drunk.

"I'm an alcoholic," he said. "It took years to ever level with myself and realize, from the first time I drank, that I had it in me. It took years of suffering."

Destruction 

At his apex, Berby said he would drink a minimum of six beers per day. At that time, he blamed the end of a romantic relationship for his increased consumption. He learned later on that it was just his way of coping with everyday issues.

After graduation, as a teacher in Bridgeport, Michigan, he said he would drink while crafting exams and quizzes. His questions, were "racy" and they entertained his students, he said, but proved to him that he was battling an addiction.

"Boy, would I ever be creative," said Berby, who added that he couldn't fall asleep without drinking. "What's the most common shape of most objects in the universe: a cube? a sphere? Dolly Parton? Multiple choice (questions).

"I was a good teacher, but my alcoholism was certainly making me less of a teacher. With my personality, I was all over the place."

He was fired more than once.

In the meantime, Berby still ran. He recalls a time when he was working at a school in Howell and went to the track and ran two miles, sober, in 11 minutes. He said he was pleased with his time despite not running often and being an alcoholic.

Berby's first wife, Judy, who he married in 1970, was well aware of her husband's problem. The whole family suffered the consequences of his addiction. Matt, his oldest son, said he was too young to understand what was going on.

"I remember that when I used to get up to use the bathroom at night, I'd have to step over him because he'd always be sleeping in the hallway in front of the bathroom door," said Matt, the oldest of Berby's three children. "I thought that's just where dad sleeps.

"It didn't seem weird to me."

It was on New Year's Eve of 1977 that things shifted for Berby. He and his wife were ringing in the New Year with another couple. There were drinks involved.

Toward the end of the night, the other gentleman's face fell into the plate in front of him, Berby said.

"His wife, after we cleaned him up and got him in bed, says, 'Judy told me you're going to go back to Michigan to try and get help with your drinking.' She said, 'I sure hope you would. I would be proud of you.'

"Judy came in the room and Joyce took one hand and Judy took the other. I cried and I was afraid. I went down to Michigan, and I got some counseling."

Berby beat the alcoholism, but it didn't change his marriage. He and his wife got a divorce in 1981. He moved back to Michigan. His relationship with his kids was strained after he left.

Triumph 

Before becoming sober in 1978, Berby had run six marathons. He ran eight the following year alone.

He went to a marathon in Toledo and met a couple, the Webbs. The wife, Sally, impressed the former college runner.

He would see her around at marathons. By 1984, Berby was a writer for UltraRunning Magazine and called Webb "Michigan's best ultramarathoner." She outlasted him at the "Monroe Millers 24-hour run" and won the marathon by running 96 miles.

"Title IX was passed three years after I got out of MSU. There was nothing," said Webb, who wasn't able to ever compete for any of her schools. "I was in a class once at MSU, and the track coach was timing us and I ran a mile. That was interesting, but I had no clue as to what any of it meant."

Webb and her husband got divorced in 1986. She and Berby got married in 1990 at the "Marriagethon" in Perry, an event they put on. Along with friends, they ran in the morning and got married that evening.

"We thought the runners would come and run and then have lunch and go home," said Sally, who uses her maiden name, Middleton. "We thought the other guests would come and then go to the wedding. Everybody stayed for everything. It was crazy."

Together, Berby and Middleton ran hundreds of marathons and ultramarathons.

In 2001, Berby ran his 215th since consuming his last alcoholic beverage. It was his last time running a marathon or ultramarathon. In 2010, at age 60, Middleton tied her husband's total mark of 221 at a ultramarathon in Cleveland. She ran 60 miles.

Middleton retired afterwards.

"It just happened that way," she said. "I ran 60 at 60, and that's something I wanted to do that year.

"It's been more of a common interest than people want to think. ... For us, since we had this thing before we met ... there was this race up in Superior that we always talk about, and if we happened to be running together and one of us couldn't keep up, the other one went on."

Both, now, sit in their home on the outskirts of Mason with their decades of experiences displayed in the living room.

And for someone who, at one point, didn't have much, Berby seems to have at lot.

"Running made me see the possibility of life after drinking," he said. " After I quit drinking and was having (issues) with this divorce thing, the shrink I went to in upper Wisconsin, I had been telling him about my running. He said, 'Tell me, is this the way it is with your running: If you can get out for a run each day then everything is going to be OK? I said, 'Yeah, that's how you say it.' He said, 'Think how lucky you are. How many people truly have something that makes everything OK?"

Contact James L. Edwards III at jledwards@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @JLEdwardsIII.

Want to know more?

“Strides” by Ron Berby can be found on iBooks for $3.99