Linked runners will attempt to set Guinness World Record, raise money for Jenny Crain at Lakefront Marathon in October

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Credit: Matthew Stockman /Allsport

Jenny Crain was an elite, world-class runner who was severely injured in 2007, at the age of 39, when hit by a car while training for the trials prior to the Beijing Olympics.

From Runner's World:

Walkers, bikers, and runners access the drive and the lakefront trails by way of a pedestrian bridge at the end of Brady Street. It was just about 7:45 a.m., on August 21, 2007. Jenny was nearing the end of her workout, running across the bridge away from the lakefront and toward her downtown home, on a route she'd probably covered a thousand times. She remembers nothing about that day. 

...

Once she crossed the bridge, Jenny ran across quiet Prospect Avenue, then continued 50 meters on Brady Street to the corner of Farwell Avenue, a busy one-way, three-lane, southbound arterial. The intersection of Brady and Farwell forms the heart of the city's old Italian neighborhood, where most of the buildings consist of brick storefronts with apartments upstairs. Franchises anchor three of the corners: a Starbucks, a FedEx Office, and a CVS Pharmacy. It's a busy intersection with an intricate system of traffic lights, but one that Jenny had negotiated countless times in all types of weather and in all degrees of sunlight and darkness.

According to witnesses, she stopped when she reached the northeast corner of Brady and Farwell, waiting to cross Farwell. In the middle lane of Farwell, a car, heading in the direction where Jenny waited, was slowing to a stop as the traffic light turned yellow. She stepped off the sidewalk and into the crosswalk, apparently expecting other cars to either slow or stop as well. But then an Audi sedan veered left around the car that had stopped. The driver, a 22-year-old man on his way to work, attempted to make it through the intersection, but struck Jenny in the crosswalk as she was about to start back on her run.

The car was traveling at least 30 miles per hour. The post supporting the windshield on the driver's side, the connector between the roof and the hood, slammed into the right side of Jenny's unprotected skull. She was thrown over the hood and landed on the far side of the vehicle. The one piece of good luck was that the accident occurred in the heart of a major city; an ambulance arrived within minutes. Jenny was still conscious when she arrived in the emergency room of Milwaukee's Froedert Hospital, where doctors determined that the impact had fractured vertebrae, shattered her jaw, bruised her aorta, and most grievously caused massive brain damage. In the ICU surgeons opened her skull to drain the swelling from a blood clot. "If the accident had occurred in a more remote location," says Dr. Jeffery Cameron, Jenny's attending physician throughout most of her recovery and rehabilitation, "chances are she wouldn't have survived."

The trauma to Jenny's parietal lobe, located at the top of her head, created a loss of spatial awareness; the one-time national-class distance runner, who was also an accomplished cyclist and swimmer, now struggles to grasp a tea cup. Injuries to Jenny's occipital lobe, meanwhile, located at the back of her head, limit her ability to read. Her short-term memory impairment results from her injured temporal lobes, while her difficulty with walking results from the trauma to one whole hemisphere of her brain that integrates sensory perception and motor skills. Damage to her brainstem, finally, restricts both her sense of balance and her ability to swallow.

Read the 11-page, compassionately written account of Jenny's Story at RunnersWorld.com.

As we all know too well, the after-effects of an accident like this are not just physical but financial. Crain’s friends and family established the “Jenny Crain Make It Happen Fund” shortly after her accident to help her pay her ongoing medical bills related to this accident and the physical therapy needed for her recovery.

The latest concerted effort is that of seventy-five runners, representing a wide-range of athletic abilities, experience and ages, who will join together (not just figuratively but literally) and complete the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon on October 1. Not only will they be attempting to set the Guiness World Record for “The Most Runners Linked Together to Complete a Marathon,” but they also will be raising money for the Make It Happen Fund. The current Guinness World Record was set at this year’s London Marathon when 47 runners were linked together and crossed the finish line 26.2 miles later.

The team will be captained by Runner’s World’s “Mayor of Running” Bart Yasso and will include Wisconsin’s ultra-running legend Roy Pirrung. Each of the runners has committed to raise a minimum of $500 for the “Make it Happen Fund” which supports Jenny’s ongoing care, support and rehabilitation. To date, the runners have raised over $30,000 towards the goal of $75,000, an average of $1,000 per team member.

Jenny’s brother, Peter Crain, said, “The support has been overwhelming. It is humbling for me to be a part of this unbelievable group of passionate, caring people. It is our hope, and Jenny’s plan, to expand this effort in subsequent years and help others impacted by traumatic brain injuries.” Lakefront Marathon Race Director, Kris Hinrichs, added, “Jenny has given so much to the running community and it is great to see the community giving back to her. What a wonderful way to showcase all that is good about Milwaukee on a world-wide stage!”

Show your support for Crain and help the 75-member team reach their goal by donating online.

About the Make it Happen Fund:

The “Make It Happen Fund” was established so that Jenny’s relatives, friends, teammates, colleagues, the running community and others can help with Jenny’s care, rehabilitation on ongoing support.

Donate here:

http://www.active.com/donate/jennycrain

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