Educator Peter Rettler has run every single day for over 30 years. Today on WTMJ Conversations, he tells WTMJ’s Libby Collins how his journey began, continuing through hurdles like kidney stones, cancelled flights, and childbirth, and why he decided to turn his passion into a way to raise funds for the Wisconsin 9/11 Memorial in Kewaskum. It’s all ahead on this invigorating edition of WTMJ Conversations! Listen in the player above.
A partial transcript is provided below, courtesy of eCourt Reporters.
LIBBY COLLINS: You never got hurt?
PETER RETTLER: Never like a knee injury or anything like that. I mean, I’ve had kidney stones at one point that I was able to run through.
LIBBY COLLINS: You kept running.
PETER RETTLER: Yeah, I remember that day really well, because I was a coach in the Wildcat Wresting Club, and we were setting up for our youth tournament. All of a sudden, I got this pain in my back, and I collapsed, and my wife drove me to the hospital. And, honestly, I thought I was dying. I had no idea how I could be in so much pain.
So, they checked me over and they put me on morphine that day and I finally — it was like finally some relief. And I remember when things settled down the doctor came in there, he goes, Pete, you don’t have a kidney stone, you got two.
And at that point the morphine had kicked in, so I was feeling good, and I’m like, can I run today? And he’s like, why would you want to run? And my wife was there, and she goes, he’s gotta run every day, he’s got this streak. And the doctor’s like, yeah, you can run, but I suggest you do it maybe while the morphine is still in you when you get home, because the pain is gonna come back.
