When Tom Gray tells you that his participation in Saturday's 36th annual Eppie's Great Race will be the most memorable of the 19 runnings he has completed, that's saying something.

Gray, after all, has a strong connection both with Eppie's – that uniquely Sacramento triathlon featuring a 5.82-mile run, a 12.5-mile cycle and a 6.35-mile paddle down the American River – and with Eppie himself.

As a second-grader back in the early 1970s, Gray would "work like the devil" to push his grade-point average above 3.0 so he could win one of those ginormous ice cream sundaes that Eppie's restaurant gave to scholars.

"My mom would take me in, and I'd get the sundae from 'Professor Eppie,' a giant cardboard cutout of Eppie with a cap and gown on," recalls Gray, now the general manager of the Fair Oaks Water District. "That was my first image of Eppie."

Then, in the early 1990s, Gray took to the race itself with typical gusto. Whenever he'd borrow a kayak and slip into the river near Howe Avenue, he'd see an older man paddling along. It was Eppie Johnson, the eponymous restaurateur practicing for his own race.

"Eppie took it upon himself to meet me there and show me a few things," Gray says. "That's the only instruction I've ever had."

In the intervening years, Gray has shared his infectious enthusiasm for the race with friends and family. "I've probably been responsible for 25 to 30 people taking up Eppie's," Gray says. "It's something you plan your year around."

But this year will be special for the 47-year-old Fair Oaks resident because he wasn't certain he would be alive, let alone in top shape to tackle the course.

On Dec. 17, Gray suffered a massive episode of bleeding on his brain and nearly died. After eight days in intensive care in Sutter General Hospital's neuroscience center, being constantly monitored by the center's "stroke team," he pulled through.

At first, doctors thought Gray, who had no existing health problems and, indeed, was a fit recreational athlete, had suffered an aneurysm. Later, a series of MRIs and other tests showed that he had a congenitally defective brain artery that failed.

But for a week or so, Gray's prospects were dire.

"They essentially said you aren't going to make it through the night and told my wife to bring in the family to say goodbye," says Gray, who has three children. "And they said if I did make it through, they figured I'd be of limited mental or physical capacity because that's what happens when somebody has a stroke."

He did make it through the night, though. And the next and the next. Eventually, the blood was absorbed back into his system and the crisis was over.

Whatever the cause, the result was that Gray left the hospital grateful to be alive but with a long road of rehabilitation ahead of him. He was lucky, he says, not to have sustained any cognitive or physical damage. But he was weakened so much that just walking around the block and eating a full meal were challenges.

"It was unusual," he says. "We went from 'You won't make it through the night' to 'There are no restrictions' pretty fast. I don't take any medications or do any therapy. The doctors told me I could resume normal activity."

Just being around for his three children – Rachel, 18, Paige, 17, and Tommy, 6 – was incentive enough for Gray to work hard to get back to normal life.

And normal, to Gray, also means doing Eppie's.

But first, he really had to get back in shape.

"Initially, it was scary," Gray says. "I had lost all my fitness. I couldn't eat for a while. The stress on my body was such that I was winded. I went back to work in February, and I started out just doing walks. Then I'd do a little more, then was able to eat full meals. Since then, I've just dedicated myself."

After checking with doctors, Gray regained fitness and put in more miles running, cycling and paddling than in previous years. He's already completed a backpacking trip to Yosemite and a few "warm-up" running races.

He has routinely finished in the top 25 percent of Eppie's Ironmen division and sees no reason why he can't finish that high this time around.

"I would've never chosen this path for myself or for anyone, but I feel humbled and blessed," he says. "Everything seems much more enjoyable now. When I'm training and my lower back or my knee hurts, I'm thinking, 'OK, but I'm doing this.' I didn't think, lying there in ICU, that I'd ever be able to do Eppie's again."

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Call The Bee's Sam McManis, (916) 321-1145. Read his postings on the "Sacramento Health & Fitness" blog at sacbee.com/blogs.