When the starter’s gun went off at the Bolder Boulder last week, Steve Krebs was overcome with powerful, conflicting emotions: Joy and gratitude, but sadness for the tragedy that allowed him to be there.
He got teary-eyed because of the way he nearly lost the ability to run — his gift and his passion — and in sympathy for the family of the 17-year-old boy whose death made it possible for him to be in the F wave. Krebs, 47, would run with part of that boy’s femur.
“Being able to say what was stolen by accident is not gone … the only word is grateful,” Krebs said three days later, choking up anew at the memory. “It’s hard, because I know some kid is dead, some mom is anguished every day when she looks at his picture.”
Before a freak running accident 14 months ago, Krebs was one of the best runners in Colorado. He ran track at Colorado State and later developed this strange habit of finishing second in local marathons — usually to people half his age.
He’s a great friend to those of us lucky enough to be included in his circle of “cult” runners, and one of the most generous people I’ve ever known.
Krebs fell while running on the Zorro trail on the Dakota Hogback near Red Rocks 14 months ago. It was supposed to be his last long run before the Boston Marathon, but he injured his right knee. The diagnosis: a minor meniscus tear.
“No big deal,” said Krebs, who is an internal medicine physician in Wheat Ridge.
It turned out to be anything but minor after his arthroscopic surgery.
“What people don’t know is that one in 10,000 people develop what’s called osteonecrosis, which means the bone — above where usually a laser is used — dies,” Krebs said.
When Krebs still couldn’t walk two months after the surgery, he had an X-ray done and the results were horrifying.
“It was obvious: The bone was dead, the cartilage had broken into pieces, there was a big divot in the femur,” Krebs said.
This would be devastating for any runner, but I’ve never known anyone who loves running as much as Krebs, except maybe the friends who gravitate to him. That’s why he calls us a “cult.”
“Your expectation is you will have a meniscal repair and you will run the Fort Collins marathon (six weeks later),” Krebs said. “You go back in and the (doctor’s) response is, ‘You’re done, you’re never running again, let’s figure out how you walk well.’ That’s pretty hard.”
Hard as it was to take, Krebs made sure the surgeon who did the initial procedure knew it wasn’t her fault and didn’t have to worry about a malpractice suit.
“How would you like to be a surgeon who operates on someone who is a freak show in terms of running and gets a ridiculous complication that should never happen?” Krebs said. “It’s not her fault.”
Another surgery intended to fix the femur didn’t work. Then Krebs saw a joint replacement specialist who said it might be worth trying to transplant part of a cadaver’s femur and cartilage. Krebs spent three months waiting for a donor.
“You sit there and say, ‘Wow, I hope they call me,’ every day,” Krebs said. “But then when they actually call you, you sit there and say, ‘Wow, somebody just died.’ That’s a pretty horrible thought.”
Krebs had the transplant in October. Last month his doctor did an MRI, liked what he saw and cleared him to run.
Krebs finished 168th in the 2008 Bolder Boulder with a time of 36 minutes, 31 seconds. Last week he was thrilled to run 48:45. Now he’s hoping to run his 57th marathon in December.
Needless to say, Krebs hopes you will sign a donor card if you haven’t already. He doesn’t know much about his donor, just that he was a kid who lived in Kansas and drove his motorcycle into a tree. He has the address of the boy’s parents.
“When I finish my first marathon,” Krebs said, “I’m going to send his family a picture.”
