Marine Corps Marathon Inspiration

A marathon is a long race – 26.2 miles of running to be exact. The Marine Corps Marathon, held October 24 in Washington, DC is a huge race with over 30,000 runners participating. But out of all the steps taken that day, nine steps were truly heroic.
Those nine steps were Jon Crais achieving his lifelong goal of running a marathon.

And those steps were made possible by almost 2 years of intensive recovery from a car accident and about 46,000 steps by Jon’s friend Thomas Odom.

 
22 months ago, Jon was in a very serious car accident and in a coma for 3 months. After recovering from the coma, Jon began the long process of learning how to live in his new body – a body and mind much different than the one he was used to. Jon had a traumatic brain injury and multiple physical injuries that left him dependent on a wheelchair for transportation and other people to meet his daily needs. He never lost his dream of running a marathon.

 
Thomas is an avid athlete and has competed in dozens of races – marathons, triathlons – qualifying for the Iron Man World Championship in Kona and even a Double Iron race that was 281 miles! Thomas met Jon through ConnectAbility and they began running together earlier this year.

 
Through the Kyle Pease Foundation, Thomas and Jon were able to make the trip to DC to race together. About half a mile from the finish line, Jon decided to cross on his own two feet. Thomas stopped five yards from the finish to help Jon take those 9 amazing steps and together, they finished the marathon.

 
Watch the whole thing unfold on the video and understand the sacrifices you’re seeing – Thomas sacrificed a photo finish so that Jon’s 22 months of sacrificial therapies could get him across that finish line. Neither of the guys could have accomplished that goal without the other.

You know what we can all learn from this?
When we work together, everyone wins!