HUNTINGTON - It was Tuesday morning and Mark Gale, Marshall's assistant athletic director for football operations, was getting a walk in with buddy Mike Conley on the track around Joan C. Edwards Stadium.
Until, that is, he saw the Thundering Herd going to its "inside" drill. Gale sent Conley ahead. Because it's the former coach's favorite drill.
"That's why I stopped," Gale said.
Fortunately for the program, though, it's the only time Gale has stopped of late. In the past year, he's gone through hell and back. Yet will not stop.
Think you've had a bad day? Let Gale tell you about last March 15.
"It was the first day of spring break," he remembers, "and I woke up in the most excruciating pain, in my side, in my back. I was sweating. I thought I had food poisoning because I'd eaten sushi that night."
He did not. Gale went to the emergency room and was informed he had a kidney stone. A CT scan was performed to pinpoint the location.
"As the radiologist was reading the CT, he told my doctor, 'Here's the kidney stone, but this guy has a spot on his pancreas,' " Gale said. "The urologist came in and said, 'We're not dismissing you until we have an MRI because of this spot, but we're going to do a lithotripsy.'"
A lithotripsy is a procedure, using shock waves, that breaks up kidney stones. Then, afterward, Gale's not-so-wonderful adventure really got started.
He had an MRI. He had three procedures performed by three different doctors in Huntington in order to have a biopsy on his pancreas. They were afraid, however, of spurring on pancreatitis and referred Gale to Pittsburgh's Allegheny Center for Digestive Health. It was either that, he was told, or the Mayo Clinic in Cleveland. It's not what one wishes to hear at 55 years of age.
"I had a biopsy," Gale said, "and it came back that 80 percent of my pancreas was pre-cancerous. That was on a Monday in June of 2015. June 22, to be specific."
Then, after three trips to Pittsburgh in six days, Gale met a surgeon.
"He said, 'We've got to perform surgery,' " Gale said. "Stupidly, I asked if I could wait until January, after the season. He said, 'No. This is going to be a six- to seven-hour procedure.' "
Gale's entire pancreas was removed, along with a third of his stomach and a third of his small intestine. Finally, the pathology department at Allegheny General declared there were "clean edges all around."
"I don't remember the first week in the hospital," Gale said. "My wife slept on a love seat in the room for 15 days."
The nightmare wasn't over. For four to six weeks, Gale was on a feeding tube. His wife Carol had to connect and disconnect the tube. Also, he was told he's now a Type 1 diabetic. These days, he has an insulin pump.
But Gale never stopped. And on Tuesday, he remembered back to the moment when he was told about the pre-cancerous cells.
"I thought 'I'm lucky,' " he said. "If it hadn't been for the kidney stone, well, I hate to use the 'D' word or the 'C' word, but by spring I would've had pancreatic cancer and we all know what the end result is there ... I'm blessed. I'm lucky. Thank God for the kidney stone. And thank God that radiologist was trained to look not just for the kidney stone, but that spot."
The toughest moment?
"Knowing I gave up coaching, something I love, to spend a little more time with my wife and daughters and now wondering, 'Is this the end of the story? Is this how it's going to end?' " Gale said. "I like to think I had enough moxie that I'd have fought through no matter what, but I'll tell you this, if it weren't for my wife..."
Gale stopped. Sunglasses blocked his eyes, but his voice changed.
"I like to think I could've done it, but I'm not sure," he said. "She ... I'm not eloquent enough to put it into words to explain who she is, what she is, what she's about and what she did to get me through this."
Carol, though, handled the tube. She handled needles. While he slept in recliners post-surgery, she slept on the nearest sofa, whether at home or on the road, to make sure he was OK.
His daughters, Caitlin, a junior softball player at Marshall, and Chelsea, a freshman, learned of his condition and pitched in.
"The three most important people in my life," Gale said. "And last season, Doc Holliday and Mike Hamrick ... I can't thank them enough for looking out for me."
Gale has been an assistant AD for 12 seasons now after coaching the Thundering Herd.
He started with MU back in 1990 after coaching at stops like Oklahoma. Perhaps no memory, however, was as touching as that when Gale returned to practice from his ordeal.
"One of the most emotional days is when I came down that [stadium] ramp and, all of a sudden, the team started clapping," Gale said. "They all stopped in the middle of practice. No one knew I was coming. Then they all came and gave me a big hug. It was a long line of guys. Quite an emotional day."
Gale said he's still receiving support.
"I get text messages, numerous weekly, from players checking on me, asking me how I'm doing," Gale said.
Mostly, he's doing well. He has a dietician, Heather Venoy, who watches over him. His family helps. Yet Gale did experience a seizure a few weeks ago. An ambulance took him to the emergency room.
But if you think Gale will let that get him down, well, you don't know Mark Gale.
"I'm embracing living my life as a diabetic," he said. "That is who I am now. I'm a Type 1 Diabetic. I have a great support system that share my last name. I'm blessed. I'm lucky.
"Has it been all a bed of roses? No, it hasn't. There have been some difficult, tough times. But I feel like I'm the luckiest man in the world."
He smiled.
"Besides, I'm too dang ornery," he said. "I plan on being around a long time."