Friday, July 15, 2005 10:35 PM CDT
EIU distance runner now in tougher fight
BY BRIAN NIELSEN, Sports Editor
CHARLESTON -- While some run 5,000- or 1,500-meter races today south of Charleston, Walter Crawford was hoping to be able to walk the 5K.
Those who can now sprint up the Panther Prowl race hills can still admire the exploits of Crawford, a former ultramarathoner who once conquered 62 miles running but now fights the tougher battle against Lou Gehrig's Disease.
That did not mean the 56-year-old former Eastern Illinois University distance runner could not enjoy some pleasant memories of what Crawford called "my personal mecca," the hilly running routes he revisited Friday while riding in a car with his former coach Tom Woodall.
"I really began running them in the early '70s," Crawford said. "It was really nice because I never got bothered, and this is sort of redneck country. I always felt God was running along with me. Some of my black buddies were somewhat mystified. Sometimes I felt I was too crazy to be scared."
Woodall calls Crawford the best black American distance runner ever to attend EIU.
"At one point in time he was the best American black distance runner in the country," Woodall said.
"That's a slight exaggeration," Crawford said. "I would say at the time I would have been one of the top five black marathoners in the country.
"It's kind of hard to color-code the rankings. That never was really something I thought about, being one of the best black runners in the country. What difference does that make?"
Before going against some stereotypes, Crawford was a sprinter.
"Somewhere along in high school I got in the mile because I was tired of getting beat by blacks in the sprints," he said.
A Chicago Hyde Park High School graduate, Crawford came to EIU in the late 1960s because it was the cheapest state school at the time, not because he received some big scholarship to be part of the track/cross country programs under head coach Pat O'Brien and his assistant Woodall.
Crawford lettered in track but was not on EIU's national championship cross country teams.
"I was a fair to middlin' runner," he said. "School was hard for me. I had to really learn out to study. I didn't have real good study habits when I came. At the time there were about 50 blacks on campus out of about 7,000."
He studied well enough to become a grammar school teacher back in Chicago and took his running exploits to longer distances after college.
First, he tackled marathons, starting with a three-hour, 43-minute race in 1970 and eventually cutting his time to 2:27.
He did not realize that eventually those 26-mile races would not be enough.
"There was a guy from New York I knew, Ted Corbitt, one of the top black marathoners," Crawford said. "I'd read this guy ran 60 miles. I just thought he was crazy. Plus, he was running in Hush Puppies instead of running shoes. He thought those were easier on his feet."
Ultra-marathon craziness spread to Crawford.
"I'd run a marathon as fast as I thought I could run it," he said. "I wanted another challenge. It was probably my last hurrah as far as training."
Starting his training with a 145-mile week and then tapering, Crawford finished second in a Chicago race in which he averaged 7 minutes, 6 seconds per mile over 50 miles.
He moved up to a 100-kilomer run n 62 miles that were much harder than the earlier race n and then in 1984 decided a 50-mile race was the last of that kind.
"After that I went into just conditioning," Crawford said. "It's like I'm sitting here talking about that stuff right now. It's coming off the top of my head. It's like, ‘gosh, you did that stuff?' "
Running took him to more than just finish lines.
"From my own little world in the ghetto, you find a higher class of people, some of the upper crust of the world," Crawford said.
"Through running I judged people more on their character than their color. There's a lot of intrinsic values through running. I just met some wonderful people I wouldn't have met if I wasn't a runner. Successful people. A little bit of their success rubbed off on me. I don't have any regrets other than I wish I would have run faster when I was at Eastern. Well, I do have another regret. I wish I would have never left."
At times in his post-college running career Crawford and his wife came to Charleston just for Saturday morning and afternoon and Sunday morning runs because the area was more conducive to running than back home in Chicago.
But now Lou Gehrig's Disease has cut Crawford's exercise routine down to four- or five-mile walks two or three times a week.
"It is much easier running four miles than walking four miles," Crawford said. "I've had this disease for about five years. My legs are still work but my upper body is weak. It's a disease that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy."
Still, the former distance runner has outlasted the life expectancy of those with the disease.
"It's a daily fight," he said. "Running all those marathons and ultramarathons, those are things that sort of keep me afloat, along with the inspiration of Dr. Woodall and other distance runners.
"I get tired of it. It's so tiring just getting up and getting ready for the day. After that I give thanks to the Lord for waking me up."
Contact Brian Nielsen at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.
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