Runners and those who watch them run are a supportive group, enthusiastically cheering and clapping for friends, loved ones and even fellow competitors as they cross the finish line at events from a local fun run to the Boston Marathon.


Such was the case at the Ralph Robertson Memorial Mustang Days Fun Run Saturday morning in Lovell.
But perhaps the biggest smiles and the loudest cheers were saved for a very special competitor, a person who earned cheers for walking a mile 20 months after a serious car crash left her wondering if she would ever walk again.


If they had given a medal for courage at the Ralph Robertson Fun Run, Chris Pearson surely would have earned it.

Supported by her family and physical therapist Ladell Merritt, Pearson used recent training to steadily make her way east on Lane 13 to the finish line on that beautiful, sunny Saturday morning, stopping to rest at each quarter mile, and she did it in record time.


“I just didn’t want to be the last one on the course,” Pearson said with a smile, noting that she even asked how long it would take some of the 10K runners to finish their race. “I asked Ladell if Jeanna (wife Jeanna Bair Merritt, a star runner at Rocky Mountain High School several years ago and still an active competitor) could run a 15K.”


Pearson had been working toward the fun run after Ladell challenged her to tackle it near the end of May. While in North Big Horn Hospital recovering from a bout with pneumonia she contracted during a visit to Nebraska, Chris heard through her sister, Judith Skinner, that Merritt had a challenge for her. He confirmed the challenge during a visit in the hospital.


“He caught me in a weak moment,” she said. “He said the incentive was that, if I could walk a mile, there are few places I can’t go. When it comes to travel, he said there are few places where I’ll walk further than a mile.”


With that incentive in place and with Merritt’s help and the support of her husband Jeff and sister Judith, Chris started walking with her walker on the Lovell High School track. She said she added a quarter mile a week until she first walked a mile on Saturday, June 21, one week before the fun run.


“It wasn’t easy,” she said of her training, “after two years of not putting forth that much exertion.”


She walked that milestone mile four times last week, including the fun run. She said her goal was to complete the course in an hour or less, and her personal record during the week was 55 minutes. She ended up finishing in 50 minutes.


“Having never been a competitor, it was a very rewarding feeling to finish and feel the support of the community and see the faces and see the smiles,” she said.

Pearson has special praise for the Lovell community, her church, her family and the medical community.


“I could never have gotten to this point without this community,” she said. “They wrapped me in their arms and pulled me along.


“As many hospitals as I’ve been in, I would never trade this one (North Big Horn Hospital) for any of them. The doctors, nurses, staff and the PT staff are next to the best.”


After working with Merritt for months, she said she trusted him when he said she could walk the mile.


“I knew I could do it when he challenged me because he never pushed me to do something he didn’t think I could do,” she said. “I always trusted his knowledge. The medical staff has so much caring and kindness. I haven’t found anybody better.”


Husband Jeff was also a life-saver, Pearson said.


“Next to God is my husband,” she said. “I can’t even begin to explain what he’s done for me. I never thought I could be a caretaker, but I’m sure glad I married one. I’ve tried to write down what I can do now that Jeff used to do for me.”


Her progress has been remarkable, considering the severity of her injuries, and her progress can be counted in the little things – she can wiggle her toes this week for the first time since the accident – and the big things: the mile, being able to drive alone and her plans to start substitute teaching at Lovell Middle School again this fall. It has all left her with a sense of gratefulness.


“I am so thankful that God saw fit to keep me as normal as I’ve ever been from the waist up,” Chris said. “I’m grateful I haven’t lost my communication ability.”

Chris Pearson’s life changed on Sept. 29, 2006. She was driving alone to a family gathering in Colorado and took the Manderson cutoff (Wyoming 433) to Worland. It was early in the morning, and Chris fell asleep at the wheel.


When she awoke, she was “bouncing, bouncing, bouncing” across a field toward an irrigation canal. Her car plunged into the canal and was carried downstream. Inside a car filling with water was Pearson, her back broken.


“I could tell the car was filling with water,” she said. “That was one of the scariest parts. I had no cell phone and no electric windows. I knew my legs were not working, but I thought it was the cold water.”


But then her luck changed. The water stopped rising and a passing motorist saw the car in the canal. He yelled at her and told her he had called emergency services in Worland.


“I think he was God’s little helper,” she said. “He said (later) he didn’t normally take that road and didn’t know why he took it that morning. I think God had a little plan in mind.”


Pearson had suffered a burst vertebrae in her lower back, affecting nerves to her bladder, stomach and legs. But her spinal column was not torn or severed, only bruised, so after initial surgery there was hope that she could walk again.


Although the surgery was successful, there was a long and painful recovery ahead and many side effects from her injuries, including stomach and digestion problems. She was in and out of the hospital several times and suffered from the peaks and valleys of recovery.


“I can’t even begin to thank the people of the community,” she said. “Jack Russell (United Methodist pastor) saved my life at various times when I was angry at God. It’s kind of hard to stay angry when you look at that smile.”


Her sister moved to Lovell to help her, Jeff was always at her side and her three boys – Dan, Matt and Doug Russell – were quick to come to town and help. People in the Methodist Church were marvelous, she said, and people of other faiths prayed and helped her, too.


She discovered Ladell Merritt almost by accident. She had heard good things about the physical therapy department at West Park Hospital, and when she started there, she found it to be true, but with driving time, going to Cody for therapy took four hours. Then when she was in North Big Horn Hospital with a bladder infection, she worked with Merritt and immediately took to him.


“I thought why drive to Cody when we have this talent right here,” she said. “I’ve never been sorry at all to turn myself over to him. He’s a pretty remarkable therapist.”


Indeed, Pearson has made so much progress that she can drive a car and is independently mobile for the first time in a year and a half. She is gaining strength and has more goals ahead.


“I’ll move to canes next (from the walker), and my goal is to have one cane,” she said. “I’m not there yet, but then I didn’t think I’d be walking a mile last Saturday.


“I want to be able to take care of myself so Jeff can ski and hike and I can get around. I can go up and down stairs, and I’m fairly self-sufficient. I have no idea where the wheelchair is. I’ve found a totally new community that probably was always there. I just didn’t realize it.”


 And so on Saturday Chris Pearson walked a mile and finished the Ralph Robertson Memorial Fun Run, which she said was special because she always used to cross paths with Dr. Robertson on her morning walks when he was running. She walked the mile with Jeff, Ladell, and son Doug and family Lara, Brietta and Rylan at her side.


After a week of rest, Chris will start her walking regimen again, working for longevity and endurance. She has come a long way from days of surgery, feeding tubes and fear.


And what would people find if they could walk a mile in her shoes?


“They will find that maybe it isn’t as scary as it looks on the outside,” she said.


And they would find that there are some wonderful people to walk with them and be there cheering at the finish line. Chris Pearson knows that firsthand.