Run For Franco
By Chris Stratton
Those words by Pre have always inspired runners in many different ways. While many have interpreted them as simply finding ways to run faster race times, others have interpreted them in ways to use the gift of running to help others.
Such is the inspiration that drove me to run the White Rock 13.1 Mile Half Marathon in 2007 and ask my friends and co-workers to sponsor me for a dollar per mile so that I could donate it to the North Texas Food Bank. The response was incredible and generated $750 for the Food Bank. I found the feeling of helping feed those less fortunate more rewarding than running the actual race.
This year I was drawn to a need much closer to home. One of my coworkers, Rosemary Miramontes, saw her son Franco become a quadriplegic due to a terrible motorcycle accident. Someone had illegally crossed into the HOV lane and clipped his bike. Doctors initially thought he would not live and he was in a coma for quite some time due to a damaged brain stem. Miraculously, he survived but is confined to a bed and breathes through a trach tube. In the past year he has been transferred between several hospitals, intensive care units and nursing homes. Each time he was in a nursing home he became dangerously ill and had to move back to intensive care. Nursing homes do not have the expertise and equipment to care for a quadriplegic on a ventilator who needs extensive breathing treatments and they simply cannot afford to keep him in the hospital. Most days, Rosemary goes home from work to visit her son in the hospital. Rosemary and her doctors want to move him home but they need sophisticated medical equipment to take care of him. Unfortunately, he will not be eligible for and Medicaid until mid 2010. Therefore, they need significant help to obtain an expensive bed, ventilator, wheelchair, medication, wound care and nursing care for Franco. It's a stark reminder how fortunate we are to have our health and family. To meet this challenge, I doubled my efforts this year. I trained to run a full marathon (26.2 miles) instead of a half and again asked everyone to sponsor me for a dollar a mile. Given the increase in distance and the personal connection of the goal, I figured I could easily double or triple what I raised the year before. I have never been so glad to be wrong.
I was excited to race White Rock this year. Not only had I trained extra hard, but I knew the course backward and forward and it was friendly to running a PR (personal record). Two friends that I ran with wanted to run a 3:40 to qualify for the Boston Marathon and I wanted to help pace them. As race day approached, donations started pouring in much faster than I expected and I was growing more and more excited.
Unfortunately, things took as turn for the worse as the weather forecast started to solidify for race day.
Normal temperatures for this time of year in Dallas have highs in the 50’s with lows in the upper 30’s. Race morning temperatures were 70 degrees with 30-40mph wind gusts. While that’s enjoyable for spectators, any runner will tell you that it’s pure misery for a marathon. Suddenly, the 3:40 time goal became completely unrealistic. After discussing the possibility of having a miserable finish we decided to go for broke and see what would happen.
We got off to a great start and stayed on pace through 13 miles. Then we faced a strong headwind on the east side of the lake that forced us to work extra hard to stay on pace. By the time we met friends at the mile 17 water stop we were still right on pace but fatigue had set in and I could tell that things we about to get more difficult.
By mile 18 my legs started severely cramping from dehydration even though I was taking in water at every single water stop on the course.
At this point I was heading into the hills of the toughest part of the course and I couldn’t even physically run due to the cramping. What started as a goal to finish in a certain time quickly became a fight just to finish. After training for so long and realizing how many people had contributed to Franco, there was no way I could give up. I limped on through the next 8 miles and finished in 3:55. This was easily the most difficult race I had ever run.
In the days after the race the sore legs and blistered feet were easily offset by the generosity of the many people at MW Zander, TFS, vendors, and friends. Our co-worker, Rob Vander Ark, helped make a great cardboard check for us to present to Rosemary. As we gathered in the lobby to share our accomplishments I was completely humbled at what we had achieved together.
We made two presentations to Rosemary. The first was the finisher medal I received at the marathon. While I reflected on the difficulty of my run, Franco’s struggle far outweighed what I overcame and I wanted him to have the medal as a symbol of never giving up. He deserved it far more than I did. I then struggled to put into words how grateful I was for the efforts of so many and I took great pride presenting a check to Franco on behalf of everyone for $10,045. It was an amount beyond my wildest expectations.
Later that afternoon I went to the hospital to visit Franco for the first time and present the check and medal to him. Although I was excited to meet him, I was quite nervous. How would I explain the difficulty of the race in light of his struggle?
Fortunately, Franco had run the exact race I did several years earlier as part of a relay team and was all too excited to share stories. His past running experiences and his animated personality made it an incredible occasion. Although Franco cannot audibly speak due to the ventilator, he hears perfectly and is able to mouth a response that we can lip-read. He was extremely grateful for the donations and thrilled to talk about his experiences at the race. He asked me to pass on his deepest thanks to everyone who helped.
We often say that running is not about the destination but rather the journey you embark on. This particular journey truly validates that statement. While the outcome of the race itself is something I never want to remember, the support of so many people in the name of Franco made it something I will never forget. Having everyone come together to put aside our own difficulties in life to help a family meet their challenges is a great reflection on the hearts of all that made this possible.
While I can’t ever express my gratitude for what you all have done, I do want to pass on one final piece of information.
Thanks to all of your help, Franco is tentatively scheduled to come home on January 19, 2009. It will be the first time he has been home since his accident over 14 months ago. While Franco still has a long road to go with his recovery, you have sent a clear message of hope and optimism to the Miramontes family this holiday season.
-Published 12/21/08 Chris Stratton
The Miramontes family is completely humbled by this unbelievable gift and would never ask for anything more. Focus On Fit would like to extend the invitation for you to continue to donate to this cause.
After your donation is received, we will send you a "thank you" confirmation email along with a special coupon code to save 10% off your entire order over $100.
Those words by Pre have always inspired runners in many different ways. While many have interpreted them as simply finding ways to run faster race times, others have interpreted them in ways to use the gift of running to help others.
Such is the inspiration that drove me to run the White Rock 13.1 Mile Half Marathon in 2007 and ask my friends and co-workers to sponsor me for a dollar per mile so that I could donate it to the North Texas Food Bank. The response was incredible and generated $750 for the Food Bank. I found the feeling of helping feed those less fortunate more rewarding than running the actual race.
This year I was drawn to a need much closer to home. One of my coworkers, Rosemary Miramontes, saw her son Franco become a quadriplegic due to a terrible motorcycle accident. Someone had illegally crossed into the HOV lane and clipped his bike. Doctors initially thought he would not live and he was in a coma for quite some time due to a damaged brain stem. Miraculously, he survived but is confined to a bed and breathes through a trach tube. In the past year he has been transferred between several hospitals, intensive care units and nursing homes. Each time he was in a nursing home he became dangerously ill and had to move back to intensive care. Nursing homes do not have the expertise and equipment to care for a quadriplegic on a ventilator who needs extensive breathing treatments and they simply cannot afford to keep him in the hospital. Most days, Rosemary goes home from work to visit her son in the hospital. Rosemary and her doctors want to move him home but they need sophisticated medical equipment to take care of him. Unfortunately, he will not be eligible for and Medicaid until mid 2010. Therefore, they need significant help to obtain an expensive bed, ventilator, wheelchair, medication, wound care and nursing care for Franco. It's a stark reminder how fortunate we are to have our health and family. To meet this challenge, I doubled my efforts this year. I trained to run a full marathon (26.2 miles) instead of a half and again asked everyone to sponsor me for a dollar a mile. Given the increase in distance and the personal connection of the goal, I figured I could easily double or triple what I raised the year before. I have never been so glad to be wrong.
I was excited to race White Rock this year. Not only had I trained extra hard, but I knew the course backward and forward and it was friendly to running a PR (personal record). Two friends that I ran with wanted to run a 3:40 to qualify for the Boston Marathon and I wanted to help pace them. As race day approached, donations started pouring in much faster than I expected and I was growing more and more excited.
Unfortunately, things took as turn for the worse as the weather forecast started to solidify for race day.
We got off to a great start and stayed on pace through 13 miles. Then we faced a strong headwind on the east side of the lake that forced us to work extra hard to stay on pace. By the time we met friends at the mile 17 water stop we were still right on pace but fatigue had set in and I could tell that things we about to get more difficult.
By mile 18 my legs started severely cramping from dehydration even though I was taking in water at every single water stop on the course.
At this point I was heading into the hills of the toughest part of the course and I couldn’t even physically run due to the cramping. What started as a goal to finish in a certain time quickly became a fight just to finish. After training for so long and realizing how many people had contributed to Franco, there was no way I could give up. I limped on through the next 8 miles and finished in 3:55. This was easily the most difficult race I had ever run.
In the days after the race the sore legs and blistered feet were easily offset by the generosity of the many people at MW Zander, TFS, vendors, and friends. Our co-worker, Rob Vander Ark, helped make a great cardboard check for us to present to Rosemary. As we gathered in the lobby to share our accomplishments I was completely humbled at what we had achieved together.
We made two presentations to Rosemary. The first was the finisher medal I received at the marathon. While I reflected on the difficulty of my run, Franco’s struggle far outweighed what I overcame and I wanted him to have the medal as a symbol of never giving up. He deserved it far more than I did. I then struggled to put into words how grateful I was for the efforts of so many and I took great pride presenting a check to Franco on behalf of everyone for $10,045. It was an amount beyond my wildest expectations.
Later that afternoon I went to the hospital to visit Franco for the first time and present the check and medal to him. Although I was excited to meet him, I was quite nervous. How would I explain the difficulty of the race in light of his struggle?
Fortunately, Franco had run the exact race I did several years earlier as part of a relay team and was all too excited to share stories. His past running experiences and his animated personality made it an incredible occasion. Although Franco cannot audibly speak due to the ventilator, he hears perfectly and is able to mouth a response that we can lip-read. He was extremely grateful for the donations and thrilled to talk about his experiences at the race. He asked me to pass on his deepest thanks to everyone who helped.
We often say that running is not about the destination but rather the journey you embark on. This particular journey truly validates that statement. While the outcome of the race itself is something I never want to remember, the support of so many people in the name of Franco made it something I will never forget. Having everyone come together to put aside our own difficulties in life to help a family meet their challenges is a great reflection on the hearts of all that made this possible.
While I can’t ever express my gratitude for what you all have done, I do want to pass on one final piece of information.
Thanks to all of your help, Franco is tentatively scheduled to come home on January 19, 2009. It will be the first time he has been home since his accident over 14 months ago. While Franco still has a long road to go with his recovery, you have sent a clear message of hope and optimism to the Miramontes family this holiday season.
-Published 12/21/08 Chris Stratton
The Miramontes family is completely humbled by this unbelievable gift and would never ask for anything more. Focus On Fit would like to extend the invitation for you to continue to donate to this cause.
After your donation is received, we will send you a "thank you" confirmation email along with a special coupon code to save 10% off your entire order over $100.
Be sure to save FocusOnFit to your favorites list and return often for special deals and new products! Also, if you have a desire to "earn while you burn", be sure to contact rob@focusonfit.com for details.
