Perseverance on the Pavement
Hilliard Area Lashutka Award Winners Cover the Course this Weekend
Three Hilliard area residents are among the four people recognized with the Lashutka Spirit Award by the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Columbus Marathon and ½ Marathon.
The annual award, bestowed in conjunction with the Columbus Marathon, is so named to honor former Columbus Mayor Greg Lashutka, who helped found the Columbus Marathon in 1980.
AC #83 Featuring winners of the 2024 Lashutka Award
In the latest episode of the Hilliard Beacon Audio Companion, hosts Jordan Smith, kevin Corvo and Tim Hofmann bring us an inspiring conversation with three recipients of the prestigious Lashutka Award, celebrating their contributions and resilience ahead of the Nationwide Children’s Columbus Marathon and Half Marathon.
The award “spotlights individuals who have inspired others by their efforts to overcome obstacles or challenges to take part in race weekend,” according to a press release from the Columbus Marathon announcing the recipients.
They are Kris Pierson and Mike Ray, of Hilliard; Heidi Baxter, a Hilliard school district resident, and Max Trem, who resides near the OSU campus.
The Nationwide Children’s Hospital Columbus Marathon and ½ Marathon is Saturday, Oct. 20.
Kris Pierson, 46, aims to set a “PR,” or in running parlance, a personal record.
Pierson set a PR in April at the marathon in Carmel, Indiana, at 2 hours, 48 minutes, 37 seconds.
His PR came only six months after a biking accident in which a motorist turned in front of him, resulting in five days in the hospital and a litany of severe injuries, including 16 broken bones and a punctured lung.
Pierson’s ribs, collarbone, and fingers were among the fractured bones.
The accident occurred on Oct. 4, 2023 on Leppert Road adjacent to Hilliard Darby High School.
Pierson was biking as part of his training for the 2023 Columbus Marathon on the day he and his wife, Jennifer, were celebrating their wedding anniversary.
Pierson said he did not remember much about the accident in the days immediately following the early morning accident, but remembered more of it later and now not a day goes by that it does not enter his mind.
“But I walked away (and) broken bones heal. It’s great to be able to run again and I’m looking forward to setting another PR,” said Pierson, who did not run his first marathon until 2010, only one year after he participated in his first competitive running event, the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, at the needling of his wife.
“When the gun went off (to start the race), my competitive juices kind of got going, and I wanted to keep improving my times. I did my first marathon, thinking it was a bucket list thing, but I just kept wanting to do another and get a better time,” Pierson said.
He and his wife, Jennifer, have three daughters and a son between the ages of 19 and 8.
Mike Ray, 42, is currently undergoing chemotherapy and is diagnosed with stage IV colorectal cancer.
“(My physicians and specialists) tell me no one is doing what I’m doing,” said Ray, who is registered for his first Columbus Marathon but has finished the Ironman 70.3 in various cities as well as the American Cancer Society’s C2C, a 138-mile relay run from Cincinnati to Columbus.
The Ironman 70.3 consists of a 56-mile bike ride, 13.1-mile run, and 1.2-mile swim, adding up to a distance of 70.3 miles across the three activities, a feat he has accomplished in 7 hours and 5 minutes.
Ray said he began running about 10 years ago “because he was tired of being out of shape,” and had been overweight since his adolescence.
Ray said he thought he might have COVID-19 or food poisoning when he developed sudden pain and was shocked to receive the cancer diagnosis in February 2021.
He also has Lynch Syndrome and is expected to receive a liver transplant as soon as the end of this year.
“I never thought ‘woe is me.’ I’ve got a life to live and (stuff) to do. (Cancer) is just an inconvenience (and) I’m going to keep going and get through it,” said Ray, a 2000 graduate of Upper Arlington High School.
He and his wife, Robin, have two sons and two daughters, between the ages of 23 and 10.
Heidi Baxter, 44, is not running in the Columbus Marathon but will be on hard passing out oranges and other fruits near Mile 23.
After Baxter’s brother-in-law, who runs the Columbus Marathon, lamented that the section of the course between Miles 23 and 25 had little support, she set up a stand to encourage runners and has since become known as the “Orange Lady.”
Baxter runs ½ marathons, 5Ks, 10Ks, and is a member of the Columbus Westside Running Club.
She is a teacher at World Language Middle School, a Columbus Public School in Clintonville, focused on Spanish and French languages and other ESL students with a student enrollment from throughout central Ohio.
Baxter also stands out as a Spirit Award recipient as a kidney donor.
“It’s wonderful that one of us could help another,” said Baxter, who replied to a post on a social media page for the Nordecke, a club of supporters of the Columbus Crew, the city’s MLS team and the winner of the 2023 MLS Cup.
Baxter donated blood on a regular basis but decided to take it many steps further in responding to the fellow fan’s request, a man she had only seen in passing at Columbus Crew games and other Crew gatherings.
“We were a perfect match, it was a miracle,” she said.
The transplant surgery was Dec. 8, 2023.
Final award winner Max Trem dreamed of playing professional baseball but a broken elbow and a series of surgeries that resulted in infections and two years of antibiotic to thwart organ failure, derailed those diamond dreams.
So, Trem turned to running and after completing his first Columbus Marathon and has set his sights on qualifying for the Boston Marathon.