2014 Ragnar Relay to Honor Steve Krohn

Welcome to Our Team Page

"'Run Until You Can't.' For many, those words might sound daunting, but for us as runners, they mean giving all that we can for a purpose that is greater than our pain, ourselves or our team. We train and run as hard as we can and push our bodies to their limits without surrender, in an effort to fight ALS and show support for our friend, Steve Krohn, who has ALS.  Run Until You Can't is also a metaphor for those battling the crippling symptoms of ALS.  This is an opportunity for you to help us on our mission to run in Steve's honor and to fight ALS.

ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s, is a devastating and fatal disease affecting 20,000 Americans with 5,000 new cases in the United States each year. It is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons eventually leads to their death, which inhibits the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients often lose the ability to swallow, speak or use their extremities; in the later stages of the disease, they may become totally paralyzed. Without a cure, ALS has proved to be a fatal prognosis.

When our good friend and colleague, Steve, was diagnosed with ALS in April 2013, it was a life changing moment for him and his wife, Kathy. The announcement of Steve's prognosis affected many of us deeply. We wanted to support him and we wanted to help him fight. We showed him our support by dedicating our 200-mile Northwest Passage Ragnar Relay to Steve. A group of 17 individuals: 12 runners, 3 volunteers and 2 drivers came together last year and raised over $105K in Steve's honor. For 2014, we intend to do the same but on steroids, with 4x more people participating. Please consider donating to the 2014 race.  Your donations will go directly to support those families in the Pacific Northwest who have been affected by ALS.

Last year, we saw teammates go through every emotion. We had runners push themselves to the brink at 2AM, keeping a steady pace on a 7-mile run over intimidating hills after only 3 hours of sleep on a gym floor. We had runners overcoming heat exhaustion and fighting through their last leg after injuring themselves. But maybe most importantly, we saw the pure joy in all of our teammates as we crossed the finish line with Steve and Kathy, having overcome every barrier put in our way. That will be a moment in all of our lives that we will never forget.

This year we will not only be crossing the finish line again with Steve and Kathy but with four teams, comprised of 48 runners, plus many volunteers. Please join in our mission to help fight ALS. And run until you can't!"

Meet the Team:

Nick Brock

Carl Chalmers

Zachariah Christensen

Brad Dear

Daniel DeYoung

Matthew Fedrizzi

Michaelle Hoffman

Andrew Johnson

David McCarthy

Joel Nelson

Erin Pangborn

Cecilia Velazquez

Jason Woon