Ultramarathon man connects with Children's Home
Arthur Webb of Santa Rosa displays symbols of support he received from residents of the Valley of the Moon Children's Home. Webb will run in his 14th Badwater Ultramarathon.
KENT PORTER / THE PRESS DEMOCRATPublished: Saturday, July 9, 2011 at 4:55 p.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, July 9, 2011 at 4:55 p.m.
The kids knew. Arthur Webb didn't need to elaborate Wednesday. When he told the kids at the Valley of the Moon Children's Home, “I have your background,” they didn't giggle, like this was some old guy talking out his ear hole. When you cower in fear, when you hide under the kitchen table like Arthur did with his four sisters, waiting for the screaming and cursing and throwing to stop, it marks you. You can see it in others as easily as you see it in yourself.
“I wanted them to know there is a way out,” Webb said. “I tell them they have an advantage no one else has. They know what tough is. They are case-hardened. They can have tenacity, perseverance. All that came from my childhood.”
All that produced what Webb is today, a 69-year old Santa Rosa resident and a Badwater Ultramarathon legend. Beginning Monday, Badwater is a 135-mile run from Death Valley to Mount Whitney, on pavement that can fry eggs and brains. A retired postal worker, running for the Children's Home, Webb will compete in his 14th consecutive Badwater. No one has ever done that. He has finished each of the previous 13 under 48 hours, the reward being a belt buckle.
Badwater is hot, sweaty, filthy, stinky. Webb has hallucinated dinosaurs. Runners collapse, give up, get sick. It's lousy for the pain and suffering.
Sorry, Webb says, I've seen worse. Physical pain, he can handle. It's the emotional pain, that's the stuff that crippled him.
“It was horrible, traumatic, felt like an outcast,” Webb said of his life as a kid. “Worst part, you think you caused everything that happened, that when you found out later you didn't, you couldn't have ... you know, a kid just wants to go out and have fun ... ”
Webb's voice trailed off, his eyes piercing into his past, wishing he could have been that kid. Instead, he was a Southern California kid whose father left when he was an infant, leaving his mom, Thelma, to raise five kids. Thelma didn't make enough as a waitress.
“She would pay the first month's rent,” Webb said, “and then keep stalling for the months after that, until she couldn't dodge any longer. So we'd leave and go to the next place.”
They went to Van Nuys, Long Beach, Canoga Park, Burbank, Lakewood, all through the San Fernando Valley. Webb can only guess, but Thelma and the kids moved about 25 times when he reached 8 years old.
It was then Thelma decided she couldn't afford to keep her kids. She gave them to foster homes — to five different foster homes.
Webb returned about four years later.
Note: Webb used “about” a lot. “I mean, who wants to remember the exact details of that stuff?” he said. Thelma had remarried. To Vince, a guy who drank too much.
The fights they had, Webb remembered, were epic. Dinner plates crashing, knives being pulled, curses being spit, that sent June, Carol, Jean, Vivian and Arthur under the kitchen table or one of the beds to hide.
Vince was sent to the hospital twice.
“One time he had knife wounds up and down both arms,” Webb said. “Coulda been from my mom. Coulda been his. Who knows.” The number of fights? Webb laughed. Sometimes night after night. The number of times the cops were called? Webb laughed again. “I dunno, about 25-30, maybe more,” he said. Who keeps a scorecard on that?
After a time Arthur grew tired of cowering. He and June would roam the neighborhoods, stealing.
“Stealing anything,” Webb said. “You name it. I'd look around, I'd see something, and say to myself, ‘Why can't I have that? I deserve it. I didn't do anything wrong to anybody.' It also kept us out of the house so we wouldn't have to be around it. We were in another room but you could hear this through the walls: ‘Put that knife away!'”
Did he ever ask his mom or stepdad to stop?
“I was too scared,” he said.
At 13 Webb began to find his moral compass. He was tired of stealing, tired of being poor. He got a job as a busboy at a Long Beach restaurant owned by Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Bob Lemon. His first day on the job changed the direction of his life forever.
“I was chewing gum and the restaurant manager came up to me and said, ‘Son, either the gum goes or you go.'” Webb said. “I went back to the bathroom. I wanted to leave right then. I didn't want him telling me what to do. But I thought to myself, ‘All I had ever done is run away from things.' I decided to make a conscious effort to find out what I was made of. So I spit out the gum. I stayed. I was scared to death.”
That night the restaurant manager called Vince at home and said, “In all the years I have worked in restaurants, I have never seen anyone work as hard as your kid.” Webb had received his first compliment.
“Those 30 seconds in the bathroom changed my life forever,” Webb said. “I had crossed the Rubicon. I found out I was worth something.”
Webb left the house for good at 16. Graduated from Pierce Junior College, then Cal State Northridge with a degree in political science. Became a medic in the Air Force. Bought a house in Santa Rosa 25 years ago when the smog in Los Angeles affected his breathing. Married the lovely Christine. Fathered a boy, Brian, and a girl, Tiffany. Worked as an electrician in the post office for 30 years. Arthur Webb, in the truest sense, is a self-made man.
Fourteen years ago he became infatuated with the challenge Badwater presented. Wanted to pair up with a children's charity. Found Children's Home. Found kids living a life he once led. Most of them have never even run a mile. Webb begins his presentation by showing a three-minute film footage of Badwater. The gasps, the unblinking eyes staring in amazement, that gets their attention. Then Webb seals the deal by mentioning then and only then, “I have a background like you.” He doesn't have to explain how or why. They know.
“All these kids have something good in them,” Webb said. “Once they find a direction in life, they can do amazing things.”
Like what Webb had to do to finish the 2010 Badwater. He ran the last 50 miles with a hernia. In the post-race photo, Webb is leaning hard to his left side, his left hand pressing in the bulging tissue, the pain so severe. He underwent surgery soon thereafter.
“I don't believe in quitting,” he said, knowing full well that while abuse can mark you, it doesn't have to define you.
For more North Bay sports go to Bob Padecky's blog at padecky.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist at 521-5223 or bob.padecky@pressdemocrat.com.
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