The Olive family and their team at the finish of the 100-kilometre Lost Soul Ultra in Lethbridge.
CRYSTAL OLIVE, GAZETTE CONTRIBUTOR
You tell yourself you can do hard things, but do you really believe it? My name is Crystal Olive and I am local to Fort Macleod and I run to raise awareness for my son Alex who is 15 years old living with a rare genetic disease called Ataxia Telangiectasia, or A-T for short.
A-T is a rare genetic disease that causes loss of motor control, high rates of cancer, immune deficiencies, and lung complications.
Most kids with this disease start off walking, then progress to a walker and then a wheelchair by the age of 10.
Most people with A-T don’t survive their twenties because of complications of pneumonia and cancer.
On Sept. 5, I set out to complete 100 kilometres at the Lost Soul Ultra in Lethbridge.
This fully exposed course is a 50-kilometre loop that takes place in the River Valley in Lethbridge taking you over 16 significant hills while gaining about 1,100 meters a loop.
There are three main aid stations along the course to refuel and see your crew.
The race was going perfectly until about 70 kilometres in when I developed severe blisters on both my big toes because of the steep decent on the coulee walls.
I came into the aid station telling my crew, “It’s okay to struggle as long as I find joy in it.” This might sound strange to most people but when you have a child with a rare disease this becomes the theme of your everyday life.
You watch your child struggle with everyday tasks that most people take for granted like walking, feeding themselves, and sometimes just opening a door.
You watch their friends move on and hit milestones that they never will simply because they physically can’t.
Yet despite Alex’s challenges he simply finds the joy in what he can do. So, I take that attitude in my race knowing at some point it will physically and mentally break me down but when I can still find joy in what I am doing I can overcome anything.
I would finish my first 100KM race in 17:24, placing 10th among females and 32nd out of 116 registered racers.
You would think that running 100 kilometres would be the “A” race of my season but in fact it was just a big training day for the main event which is hiking the Grand Canyon with Alex in October.
More than five million people visit the Grand Canyon every year. Less than 10 per cent of visitors step one foot below the rim of the canyon and less than one per cent of people make it to the bottom and back.
After a full year of training Rob, Clark, and myself will be hiking the Grand Canyon down the Bright Angel Trail to the Colorado river at the bottom.
This trail is 25.4 kilometres with 1,372 meters of elevation gain.
To make it down there for an abled person with full gear requires a lot of physical conditioning.
To attempt this with Alex in his Joelette adaptive hiking chair and just three people is considered impossible.
This is our next challenge and we will be doing this to raise awareness and funds for the A-T Children’s Project.
To support our fund-raiser please consider making a small donation to http://atcp.org/event/alexsarmy-2025/.
We don’t just believe we can do hard things, we live it.
