Local runner Craig Chambers made path better for others

Shoe store owner Craig Chambers, a source of encouragement and knowledge in the running community, died of melanoma last week.

He fooled me. Or maybe I fooled myself because I did not want fate to unfold as it did.

I had thought that somehow, despite the disease that first appeared as two small dots on his scalp, the sheer force of his lively spirit would see Craig Chambers through.

I had hoped that Chambers, 59, who first appeared in this space in March after he walked the Los Angeles Marathon, would find a way to run right past cancer and keep going, just as he had done while jogging on what seemed like every fire trail on every low mountain in Southern California.

I had prayed that he would be a walking miracle, and that I would one day write of his comeback.

Sometimes, prayers are not answered. That happened here. Last Thursday, surrounded by family and loved ones at a Santa Monica hospital, Craig Chambers died.

You may recall that six months ago, Chambers allowed me to tag along while he made his way through the flat, hot course. He had run in every single L.A. Marathon, 22 in all, finishing each without trouble.

This year, however, suffering from Stage IV melanoma, he could only walk.

Chambers, who stood 6 feet, had piercing blue eyes and pale skin, was well aware of the odds. Aware that this would likely be the last time he would wind his way through the streets of Los Angeles, the city whose every corner he seemed to embrace.

For 26.2 miles that fine March day, we talked about shared interests: architecture, philosophy, politics, art, urban life and, of course, sports. He was an athlete, and an intellectual. His talk of Obama and Dostoevsky and bird watching helped me focus on something other than the fact that my quads were cramping and I walked, better yet, hobbled, in his shadow.

Chambers did not appear to like speaking about himself. He simply did not regard himself as someone to make a fuss over. This much I did glean: He had grown up Pacific Palisades. He had gone to UC Santa Cruz in the 1960s, had learned to see the world with open eyes there, and had started running during the jogging craze of the ’70s.

He said he had already outlived the doctor’s timelines for his longevity. I gathered that he thought the melanoma was something he could end up conquering. If not, he wanted to hold the cancer back as long as possible because there was still so much life to live, so many topics to discuss, books to read and friends to encourage. “You can do this,” I heard him say, repeatedly, to struggling runners that day. “Just take things slowly.”

He spoke from experience. His feats are the stuff of legend. He ran more than 200 marathons and ultramarathons, all over the world. Once he ran 200 miles through Death Valley, followed that with a 10-mile swim, and then followed the swim with a 100-mile bike ride.

Along with his college roommate, Charlie Hoover, Chambers since 1980 had operated Phidippides, an Encino running shoe store. For five years during the ’80s — after he had given up his car, just to see what it would be like — he ran 13 miles from his Santa Monica home to the shoe store in the morning, and then ran from work back to home every night.

Why did he stop? Kathy Kusner, his life partner since 1983, explained with a quote that is a window into how he approached life: “Well, I was telling him how great cars were, that a car was a good thing to have in L.A. Finally, the time came when he said, ‘Enough already, I’ve done this for five years, running 26 miles to and from work each day. That was fun, now let’s move on.’ “

I kept tabs on Chambers over the months. I heard about how he kept walking, sometimes with his old running group. There were times when he fell to the pavement. Always, he got back up, vowing to continue, a smile on his face.

The cancer kept coursing through his body. Already, he had endured months of hard chemotherapy, undergone a brain operation, and surgeries to remove part of a lung, part of a liver, part of his lymph nodes. Now he was injecting himself daily with Interferon.

Still, in June, when he and Kusner met me for dinner at an Indian restaurant in Culver City, he was positive, even somewhat excited. Scans had shown the cancer was slowing. There was the possibility he could be part of new drug trials. He gave a quick update, smiling. Then he wanted to know about my trips to Asia, about my wife and her east-Indian roots, about what was going on at The Times.

Never did I hear him speak too long about himself. Never did I hear him complain.

“It wasn’t ‘Why me, why poor me?’ ” Kusner would say. “It was more like, ‘Let’s keep trying, I’m not doing that badly. I can go on.’ He kept an unbroken streak for not complaining, right until the end.”

Three weeks ago, we ate dinner once more, this time at the Playa Vista apartment he shared with Kusner. He was so weak he could barely stand. He had lost 30 pounds. His voice was a halting whisper. He asked me to read him a soon-to-be-published column. Sick as he was, when I told him the piece worried me, that I was not sure it was any good, he looked at me and smiled and said nothing but positive things.

It was time to go. I helped him to his feet and hugged him, knowing this might be the last hug, hoping and praying it would not.

Keep going, he told me. Just keep going.

Craig Chambers, I will, and so, surely, will your friends and family. In your example, in the graceful, powerful way you lived and died, we learned much.

Thank you.

——

A funeral service for Craig Chambers, open to the public, will be today at 3 p.m. at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, 1712 S. Glendale Ave. A memorial, also open to the public, will be at Temescal Gateway Park’s Stewart Hall on Aug. 24 at 2 p.m.

Kurt Streeter can be reached at kurt.streeter

The weather was hot, but not as bad as I thought it would be. My nutrition and hydration was good, but because of my foot/ankle issues, I had to walk a lot of the downhills, especially coming down from Shortcut via the Silver Moccasin.

I was hoping this would be my last training run before AC, but think I’ll need another run before then to build my confidence. If my foot heals in time, I may do the training run this weekend, but will likely wait until I mark the Bulldog 50K course the following weekend, then perhaps do the last official AC training run on the 31st.

On Sunday, we volunteered to help new race directors Mike Palmer and Jennifer Ray at the Skyline 50K held at Lake Chabot in Castro Valley. Our task included double-checking course-markers up to the first aid station at mile 4, checking off runners as they came through, then go over the last 5 miles. When we were done, we got Rocky who we brought with us, and hung out at the finish line watching the runners come in.

This weekend, Catra will be running at Headlands, and I will be doing 50 miles at Mt Disappointment.

2007 Vermont 100 Pre-race meeting.

Jim with the top female runners from 2007.

Jim w/ Dot Helling during 2005 Vermont 100.

I got there around 3pm, which meant that Bill had only 1 more hour to go — unfortunately, I had missed Robert during his 24 mile leg. When Bill finished, he managed to cover 27.5 miles. Mike Kogutek, taking the place of an injured Robert Schipsi, was up next — he also did 24 miles. So by the time Kyle took over at 8pm, the team had racked up a total of 95.5 miles in 12 hours. We expected Kyle to be the one to put in the most miles, and he did — 30, just a bit under the 50K mark. Calvin Mulder, who was up next between midnight-4am shift, ended up with 25 miles by the time I took over the anchor leg. Doing the math, that gave the team exactly 130.5, which meant that I also had to do nearly 30 miles to reach our goal of 160. Yeah right…that wasn’t going to happen.

Coming off of Tahoe only a week before, my legs were not ready to do that kind of speed/distance, especially with most of the 1.25 mile loop we ran on being asphalt/concrete. Therefore, I resigned myself to just trying to get as close to my personal goal (26 miles) as possible, which I thought would be doable, but with some work of course, and something I was hoping the team would be satisfied with.

I started out feeling pretty good — I was clocking 10 min laps, which was around an 8 min/mi pace. The question was, how long could I keep that up. Knowing that my marathon PR was around the same pace, I knew it wouldn’t be long before I would start petering out. After a couple hours, I began feeling it in my legs and feet — they were dead and very swollen/sore. At that point, I stopped looking at my watch, and just put my head down. The 5-7am stretch was tough. Bill would mention occasionally how many miles we had covered, but I was too tired and sleepy to really do any type of calculation, and figured the goal we set was well out of range. Not until less than 30 mins left, did I realize how close we were to getting 160 miles. Then on my second to the last lap with roughly 20 mins left, Bill mentioned we were at 158 miles. I still didn’t think it would be possible, since I thought I was running much slower than I actually was. Then when I completed my last lap (159.25), Bill said that it was still possible to get 160 since I had about 4 mins left. So I ran .75 miles more along the infield, and finished with 1 minute to spare — I managed to do 29.5 miles, which gave the team exactly 160 miles in 24 hours!

I never thought I’d be able to cover that much ground in that amount of time after doing a 100 miles a week before, so it gave me confidence to know that a sub-4 hour 50K was somewhat within reach on fresher legs on a similar course.

Here’s Bill’s message and account of the weekend:

Dear Family & Friends:

 

First of all, many thanks to those of you who’ve supported Team John M. Potter, MD through donations, kind words, and prayer. This year’s Relay for Life has been and will continue to be a great success. To date, Team John M. Potter, MD has raised $5,185 for cancer research and support.

 

This past weekend, July 26 and July 27, the team, comprised of six runners, ran strong for fours hours each with the overall goal of covering at least 160 miles in 24 hours. The members of the team and their corresponding shift from Sat. 8:00 am to Sun. 8:00 am included:

 

1. Robert Baird 8:00 am - 12:00 pm

2. Bill Ramsey 12:00 pm - 4:00 pm

3. Mike “Big Dog” Kogutek 4:00 pm - 8:00 pm

4. Kyle Hoang 8:00 pm - 12:00 am

5. Calvin Mulder 12:00 am - 4:00 am

6. Andy Kumeda 4:00 am - 8:00 am

 

Each of the six runners covered between 25 and 30 miles. Special recognition goes to Kyle Hoang and Andy Kumeda. Kyle covered the highest mileage running 30 miles during his 4 hour run. His strong smooth stride was a joy to watch. Andy took over for the last shift on Sunday morning at 4:00 am. Although he had just run the Tahoe Rim Trail 100 mile Endurance Run the prior weekend, he came with a special purpose, to run strong in the memory and honor of both of his parents. Despite deeply fatigued legs and the pain of running the Relay’s concrete/asphalt loop, Andy managed to hold a strong pace covering the second highest mileage total for the team and cracking the 160 mile barrier at 7:59 on Sunday morning. Robert Baird started the team off on Saturday morning with a consistent and steady effort running in memory of his mother and aunt, and in honor of his wife. He wrapped his forearms with tape inscribed with the names of family members and friends lost to cancer and continuing their fight today. Mike Kogutek filled in for an injured Robert Schipsi on Saturday afternoon and turned in an awesome effort. He ran with focus and determination. At the end, he was thankful for having had the opportunity to run for the team. Calvin Mulder took on one of the loneliest shifts starting midnight Saturday. His purposeful, metronomic stride continued to tally the miles for the team and take us closer to our goal. Our team has been blessed with each of these fine men and runners.

 

If you haven’t yet contributed, but considered doing so, there’s still plenty of time. Every dollar counts. You can make on-line contributions to the team at the following link. You can make a contribution to the team or to an individual runner on the team by clicking on their name at the bottom of the team page:

 

DONATE!

 

Should you wish to make a donation by check, please make them payable to the “AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY” (no cash please), and mail your tax-free contribution to:

 

William Ramsey, AICP, Principal Planner

Planning Department

32400 Paseo Adelanto

San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675

 

As always, thank you and blessings to you for your support.

 

Bill

Congratulations to everyone. Catra and I finished in just over 32 hours — this was our 5th 100 miler of the year, and our 3rd we ran together.

At Relay, people from within the community gather to celebrate survivors, remember those lost to cancer, and to fight back against this disease. Please help support our cause by donating a few dollars, and/or coming out in person to run or walk a few laps with us.

Here’s our schedule:

1. Robert Baird 8:00 am - 12:00 pm
2. Bill Ramsey 12:00 pm - 4:00 pm
3. Robert Schipsi 4:00 pm - 8:00 pm
4. Kyle Hoang 8:00 pm - 12:00 am
5. Calvin Mulder 12:00 am - 4:00 am
6. Andy Kumeda 4:00 am - 8:00 am

Here’s my account from last year — this year, I will not be doing any trail maintenance beforehand, but am running another 100 miler the weekend before.

Oh yeah, best of luck to everyone running Hardrock this weekend.

This race not only signified my 5th finish there, but also was my 5th anniversary of running 100 mile races, completing 23 out of 24 attempts to date, which still pales in comparison to Catra’s 55+ finishes.  We’ll be back next year when Catra will be earning her 5th finish there.

Photos here.

This weekend, we’re off to do Bighorn, where we will be faced with lots of snow, water, and ice — so much that they’ve already re-routed the course up at the higher elevations.

It all started like this:

Date: 2004/10/11 Mon AM 06:31:39 EDT
To: <sandiego100@cox.net>
Subject: Race registration

Hello — is there still time to enter the race?

компютри

Well Done…is how I ended up after getting cooked in the 100+ degree temperatures out on the course.

The plan was for me to pace Catra the latter half of her solo 100, which consisted of 3X The Ohlone 50K course + a 5 mile dog leg in Sunol + a 2 mile roudtrip to Jerry’s house for aid near the starting line at the Mission Peak trailhead. Sounds easy enough…but what was not supposed to be in the picture was the heat wave that put temperatures both days in the upper 90’s and low 100’s.

The course consisted of a 4 mile 2000′ climb from the start, right up to Mission Peak, then dropping straight down into Sunol (mile 9). From there, we would start one of several climbs, passing the Backpack Area (mile 12.5) and Goat Rock (mile 15), culminating 3000′ later at the top of Rose Peak, the course high, where we would ultimately descend down into the finish at Del Valle, interrupted by 2 steep climbs near Stewart’s Camp (mile 25) and out of Satan’s Pit (mile 27).

When I picked Catra up at Sunol around 9pm (about 16 hours into her run) Saturday night, she was doing extremely well, considering by the time I joined her, she had already gone through an extremely hot day, and 50-ish miles. We would do a 5 mile out-and-back past Little Yosemite in Sunol, then return to the course to head back to the start at Mission Peak for the final 50K.

We were having a great time between our respective bouts with issues — hers being a re-occurrance of her UTI, and mine was struggling with the heat and accumulation of excessive race mileage over the last few weeks. Nevertheless, we managed to maintain a positive attitude, and enjoy each others company as we trudged closer towards the finish.

Along the way, I was acquainted with many landmarks and trails that Catra had mentioned so often — now, it became real to me, instead of just being a fictitious part of her stories.

There was:

• her favorite tree, which gave us energy when we were at one of our low points
• Mission Peak, looking out over all of the east bay, watching her hometown of Fremont waking up
• Sunol, where many of her ranger friends work, and one of her favorite trails (Eagle’s View) is located
• Hawk’s Nest – where Catra camped out during her PCT training last year
• many interestingly shaped trees — the checkmark, seahorse, the pope, the two friends, and my very own weiner log
• and finally, Rose Peak

When we eventually got down into Sunol, just after 7am and over 27 hours (only 10 hours for me) into the run, it was somewhat of a relief, yet we still had 20 miles to go, including the climb up to Rose Peak. After dropping off our night gear, refueling, and patching up Catra’s feet, we were on our way. When we reached Goat Rock, Chiping caught up to us — he started at 6am to mark parts of the course. He snapped some photos of us, then took off.

I thought we were almost to the top, but didn’t know it would be another 3 miles and 1500′ of climbing. At this point, we were getting a bit delirious, or maybe it was just me, as I began seeing various formations in rocks and trees, one of which was Winnie the Pooh. Just before we got to Rose Peak, we were passed by Jean Pommier, who had a sizable lead, and was on his way to victory. Not far behind was Mark Tanaka, Kevin Sawchuck, and Catra’s friend Will. After we got our bracelet at the top, we started our descent — 10 miles, and 2500′, with a couple steep climbs in between. Shortly after the turn-around, we saw Beth Vitalis on her way to a new age group record.

As we were around Stewart’s Camp (25 miles into the 50K — 75 for Catra), we saw one of Catra’s ranger friends in a jeep flying down the trail. He stopped briefly, and we asked if everything was ok — he abruptly responded, NO, and sped off. We knew then that it was serious, and hoped that whoever it was would be ok. Turned out that a runner collapsed, and had to get air lifted out (see below). One of the other casualties occurred near the finish as a runner from TX collapsed, and had to get assistance from medical personnel — she was also air lifted out, but her injuries were not as serious.

All,

I just spent the last hour talking to my friend Karen who is the
sister in-law of the runner who collapsed at Ohlone 50k this past
weekend. I got a bunch of details from her and her permission to
share to the rest of the group.

First and foremost she wanted everyone to know that the quick
response saved his life. It was pretty bad and there was a point
where they were not sure if he was going to make it. The family is
extremely thankful and grateful to all of those who came to his aid.
He has a wife and two children, ages 8 and 4.

The details as I got them. He had thrown up before he collapsed and
doctors know that he had ingested some of it and may have been
without air for sometime. They were worried about brain and kidney
damage. On Monday morning he regained consciousness but was still
confused by his surroundings. By Monday night this improved and
doctors ruled out brain damage but remained concerned about his
pneumonia, kidneys, liver and heart. This morning the doctors stated
that his kidneys are functioning much better. He’s still in the ICU,
will most likely spend another day there and will be in the hospital
for the rest of the week. They are breathing much easier now. Good
news indeed. Again they just wanted people to know how thankful and
grateful they are.

I was a volunteer at the race but had heard nothing of the incident.
It just so happened that I attend the same church as Karen and had
heard through friends about her brother in-law collapsing at a 50k.
After reading the emails today I put the two together and called her
and got all the info. If I hear anything more I’ll be sure to share.

Rick Gaston

Some photos of the incident.

Another account of the incident.

After our first of two final ascents, we started down the steep and narrow switchbacks to the bottom of Satan’s Pit (area coined by Catra, but officially known as William’s Gulch), where there were several runners cooling down in the water. It was nice to know this would be the last of our major climbs — only 3 more miles to the finish, which were mostly downhill. As we neared the end, Catra looked at her watch, and yelled we could still make it under 36. Before I could even react, she took off in full stride — you would’ve never guessed she had run a 100 miles over the last day and a half. We crossed the finish at 4:10pm — 35 hours and 50 minutes after Catra began.

If you saw both of us afterwards, I think I looked more like the one who ran a 100 miles — I was exhausted, sore, tired, sleepy, burned, and hungry. Next year, when I join Catra again, I think I’m going to need a pacer myself.

Anyone wanna pace a pacer?

Top of Mission Peak (25 hours into the race)

Catra’s favorite tree.

Start of a new day (29 hours into the race)

Checkmark tree near the Backpackers area.

Top of Rose Peak (31 hours into the race)

More photos here.