NO LIMITS

Steve Virgen

Just like any other runner, Christy Crandall becomes nervous before a

race. But she’s not just any other athlete.

Take a closer look. You’ll find a smile that will make your

biggest worry become tiny, your largest complaint in life will

wither. That smile is as real and true as the challenges she has

overcome throughout her life.

Crandall, a Newport Beach resident, deals with obstacles on a

daily basis. She has cerebral palsy.

When she is among the other athletes before a 5,000-meter race,

she says she pretends she can run as fast as everyone else. Yet, as

trite as it may sound, Crandall does not have to pretend that she can

win. When she finishes the 5,000 meters, she wins.

“Every time I’m in a race, I try to do better than what I’ve done

before,” said Crandall, who finished a 5K race in April and is

planning to take on at least five more this summer. “I have these

little competitions within myself. I know reality. I know that I have

a disability. Sometimes people hit you in the head with reality, like

you’re so stupid you don’t know you have cerebral palsy. But that’s

why when I compete, I compete against myself.”

Since 1985, Crandall has been using her crutches and her strong

will to finish 5K events. During races, she has fallen, but she has

never stopped.

Conquering 5,000 meters? For most non-athletes, that’s difficult

in itself. For Crandall, it’s something she accomplishes every time

she enters a race.

Crandall takes it on as a challenge. She enjoys it. Barely 4-foot

tall with legs that are disproportionate to her upper body, Crandall,

40, has developed a passion for finishing 5K races.

“Ever since I did it, I got hooked,” she said. “You just can’t sit

there. If you do, life gets so boring. To sit there all by yourself?

No, no, not for me.”

Cerebral palsy is a handicap, a disadvantage, but don’t tell that

to Crandall.

“Don’t tell me I can’t do something, because I will do it,” she

said.

Twelve years ago, Crandall heard loud chants of can’t. While

walking in front of the emergency unit at Hoag Hospital, Crandall was

run over by a fire truck. She broke her left leg.

Somehow, she still found a positive in that situation.

“Fortunately all the right people were there to put me back

together,” said Crandall, who was just at her second day on the job

at the child care unit at Hoag. “I never thought I would be able to

do a 5K again. But I knew if even they amputated the leg, I would

still be able to compete in wheelchair races.”

Naturally, Crandall has been inspiring many people throughout her

life, including Bill Sumner, the cross country and track and field

coach at Corona del Mar High. Sumner has been involved with many 5K

runs that Crandall has been a part of.

Once, Sumner saw Crandall, her legs and arms scraped with blood,

before she was about to finish a 5K. During the race, Crandall

attempted to finish by herself and by the time Sumner saw her, she

had fallen several times.

Sumner asked her how many times she had fallen. Crandall

responded, “I fell three or four times, and I got up five or six

times.” Sumner was puzzled to hear that at first, but realized for

her, rising from a fall is equivalent to pushing yourself up twice.

Yet that did not stop Crandall.

Crandall, just as she has with all of the 5K events she has been

in, finished the race, which was a feat that inspired Sumner.

“I’m a confident kind of guy and that goes with the territory [of

coaching high school and running],” Sumner said. “But I’ll tell you

what, you want to be humbled? You go talk to Christy Crandall. If she

doesn’t inspire you, something is wrong with you.

“I couldn’t hold a candle to her,” he said. “She was sent here to

us. She is very special.”

Throughout the summer, while she is training and entering 5K

races, Crandall will also maintain a busy schedule. She works as a

CPR instructor for classes taught at Hoag Hospital. She’s also a

volunteer at the heart institute at Hoag and she’s an on-call

preschool teacher, as well.

One day out of the week she has a physical therapy session at

Laguna Beach Health Club where Dick Wolf works with her. She asked

for his help after the accident 12 years ago. He was her instructor

at Cal State Fullerton, where Crandall earned a B.A. degree in

physical education in 1989.

“He has been working me out with my balance,” Crandall said. “My

balance is improving. I can take steps without crutches. I never

thought I would ever be able to do that, especially after the

accident. But I don’t put limits on myself because you never know

what you can do until you try.”

Of her many goals, her current one is to satisfy herself with a

treat for her own work.

“My goal this year is to stand up long enough without crutches to

eat an ice cream -- calories and everything,” she said. “I like my

crutches but I think it would be really cool if I could do something

without them.”