What happened there? What was that about?

In October 2019, those questions scrambled through Jason Mounts’ mind. A quick, three-mile run wiped him out. It was supposed to be just a warm-up for an extended workout. But he was whipped.

That was odd for Mounts. A former soccer player at McGuffey High School in Washington County, a National Guard captain and a veteran of multiple half-marathons, Mounts maintains a high level of fitness at 40 years old. His goal was to get to the Pittsburgh Half Marathon in May and eclipse his previous best time of one hour, 48 minutes.

Three miles shouldn’t have beaten him up like that. Then the flu-like symptoms and fatigue that followed shouldn’t have lasted as long as they did. And where the heck did that rash come from?

Well, it wasn’t the flu. Or a cold. Or cellulitis, as had been guessed as an initial diagnosis. It was acute myeloid leukemia. And it was a really bad case.

“A normal white blood cell count is 10,000 to 20,000,” Mounts said during Tuesday’s “Breakfast With Benz” podcast. “Mine was between 110,000 and 120,000. Just through the roof. Something was drastically wrong.”

Fast forward to the Friday before Thanksgiving. Roughly six weeks had passed since that initial failed run.

“They say AML can be fatal within weeks or months if it’s not treated,” Mounts said. “Your guess is as good as mine as to how close I was to death. But probably not too far off.”

Mounts was rushed to UPMC Shadyside for treatment after being diagnosed at an emergency room in Washington that November afternoon. He stayed there until Christmas Day. He has returned to the Mario Lemieux Center for Blood Cancers at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center five or six times since then for rounds of chemotherapy and a stem-cell transplant.

The transplant was on May 5. But the attorney and captain in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard is already eyeing the 2021 Pittsburgh Marathon as a goal to return to competitive running.

“I’d love to get back to running a sub 1:40 half-marathon,” Mounts said with a sigh. “If not the full marathon, I’d love to get back to running the half as fast as I can.”

A lot needs to happen for Mounts between now and then. His red blood cells are still struggling with the task of getting oxygen to his muscles. He’s only embarked on jogging and walking intervals. So far, he can only top out at about a mile and half when it comes to running. But he’s trending in the right direction, and he’s been meticulous in tracking his progress.

“I track everything in a notebook. Every day. Every workout,” Mounts said. “Every week, 240 minutes of cardio. That’s about 14 miles. I’m trying to get to 15 or 15½ this week.

“Every week just a little bit more.”

Slow and steady increments isn’t exactly Mounts’ style. This is a guy who fast-tracked his recovery so much that he transformed his recovery room at UPMC Shadyside into his own gym.

After prodding just about everyone at the hospital into letting him use the cardiac health department workout equipment, Mounts decided to have the gym come to him.

He imported hundreds of pounds of free weights from his home. Dumbbells. His own treadmill. A pull-up bar. Push-up pads.

Some may worry that is too much, too fast. But Mounts said he wouldn’t be this far down the path of recovery if he didn’t have this kind of dedication to his training. And he has the blessing of his doctor, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center stem cell transplant physician Dr. Alison Sehgal.

“After transplant, one of the main concerns is loss of muscle mass,” Sehgal said. “That can affect how well someone can tolerate steroids if they need them or their ability to get up and go.

“So Jason’s dedication to staying active, to keep moving, to maintain his muscle mass after transplant was very helpful for him to tolerate the transplant.”

In fact, Sehgal cosigned on the idea of the pop-up gym because her greater concern was Mounts working out somewhere where sterility may be compromised in his immunosuppressed condition.

Mounts’ stem cell donor was his sister, Erin Wainwright. Now a resident of New Jersey, Wainwright plans to be back in Pittsburgh running with her brother in May for marathon weekend.

“He’s always been the elite, 1%,” Wainwright said. “He can do anything that he puts his mind to. If anybody can do it, he could.”

The way Mounts talks about that idea, it isn’t a matter of “could.” It’s a matter of “will.”

And “will” is something Mounts doesn’t lack.

Listen: Tim Benz talks with Jason Mounts about his recovery from acute myeloid leukemia

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)