Injury doesn't slow marathoner

ST. GEORGE — A year ago, Karla Church "bawled the whole time" from her perch on the sidelines as her friends crossed the St. George Marathon finish line without her.

This year, Church not only ran the race, she bettered her personal best time by four minutes, an accomplishment that seems all the more remarkable considering the petite 38-year-old mother of three very nearly lost her life the year before.

Church said she was enjoying her usual morning run along 13th West and 115th South in South Jordan, when a teenage driver going at least 35 miles per hour hit her from behind.

"It was a sunny, clear day. The police said there weren't any skid marks," said Church during an interview in St. George the evening before she would run the marathon. "The first thing I remember is being in the emergency room at the hospital."

She had a broken clavicle and ribs, a massive concussion with a large gash in her forehead that exposed bone, and such a severe case of road rash along the left side of her body that everyone feared she would permanently lose the feeling in her arm.

Five days in the hospital, surgery, a neck brace, and round-the-clock medical care for eight weeks failed to dim Church's determination to strap her running shoes back on and face the road.

"I really wanted to come back and do it," she said. "I wanted to prove to myself that nothing had been taken away from me. It was months before I ran again, though."

Church said her foray into the world of marathon running began six years ago when a group of five girlfriends got together for some "social running."

"We laugh together, chat, bawl and solve the world's problems while we run," she said, naming her friend Mindee McKee as the group's ringleader. "Without Mindee, I wouldn't have ever started running. She wanted me to run, and I said I would do it if she'd go golfing with me. I'm on my fourth marathon and she hasn't golfed with me once. What's going on here?"

Last year, McKee crossed the finish line holding a large poster with a photo of her injured friend and the words "This one's for you, Karla," printed on it. Church loved the sentiment and her friend, but hated the position she was in.

"From the first day they got me up on my feet in the hospital, from day one, I was determined," she said. "I didn't think I'd ever run again. I laid in my big recliner for weeks. Running in this marathon seemed so impossible at one time."