Bob Young: Team Taylor 5K fights SIDS
Katie Cosmas recently found herself in tears while watching an episode of "Grey's Anatomy" that portrayed the death of an infant.
"Random things like that can hit me super hard," she said.
That's because of the terribly random event that hit Katie and her husband Mark even harder on April 18, 2010.
That was the day they put their daughter, Taylor Paige, in her crib for her nap and she never woke up. Taylor was 51/2 months old. Her death was attributed to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, SIDS is the leading cause of death among children from one month to one year of age. About 4,000 deaths per year are attributed to it.
"She was such a happy baby," Katie said. "She had so much positive energy about her. She never even had a fever. She was never sick, always smiling and happy. She brought a lot of joy to our lives."
Her memory still brings them joy and has changed the direction of their lives.
A year after Taylor's death, the two launched Team Taylor, a fund-raising team for at Pat's Run, the annual 4.2-mile race that honors the late Pat Tillman.
And Mark, an ultra-marathon and trail runner who had spent the previous 18 years selling outdoor advertising, decided to act on his dream of owning a running store with an emphasis on trail-running shoes and clothing.
"I had my cushy job selling billboard advertising," Mark said. "But my wife and I learned the hard way that life is too short, and you've got to do what you love."
The doors opened at iRun Running Store in Arcadia Plaza in Phoenix on what they refer to as Taylor's angel-versary — one year from the day of her death.
"I remember we were passing around the Pat's Run shirts there," Katie recalls. "We didn't even have any shoes or clothes in there yet."
Team Taylor turned out to be the biggest charity team at Pat's Run. It raised about $6,000 that year. That figure spiked to $25,000 in 2012.
"It got too big and we thought, 'You know, we need to do our own fund-raising run,' " Mark said.
So they spun Team Taylor into the Team Taylor Arcadia 5K Family Fun Run, which drew 600 runners in 2013, the first year. Last year, it was up to 780 and raised $93,000. This year's race is on Sunday, April 19.
"We're expecting over 1,000 runners and to raise more than $100,000 for SIDS," Mark said. "Hopefully we'll help find a way to detect SIDS so every baby sees its first birthday."
Proceeds benefit the SIDS research efforts of Hannah Kinney, a neuropathologist at Boston Children's Hospital and professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School. Kinney has identified a brain-stem abnormality that may prevent babies from waking up or moving in response to "asphyxial challenge" — a decrease in oxygen or increase in carbon dioxide.
"It causes them not to wake up when they're in a compromising position, whether it's from a blanket or they're asleep on their stomach," Katie said.
Mark and Katie now have a son, 3-year-old Cade, whose his presence in the family has helped ease some of the pain.
"Having a happy-kid voice in the house is fun," Katie said. "Having Cade has helped."
And while their event is aimed at raising funds for Kinney's research, Katie said it's also about helping others who have lost kids. Their website even has a page for families to share photos.
"We want to raise money to try to find a cure for this," she said. "But we also want it to be a place where families can come and enjoy a Sunday together and remember their babies."
Team Taylor details: 8 a.m. Sunday, April 19. The Arizona Canal and 48th Street, about a block north of Indian School Road, Phoenix. $35, $40 after March 7. 602-368-5330, teamtayloraz.com.
Pat's Run details: 7:05 a.m. Saturday, April 25. Packard Drive next to Sun Devil Stadium, Tempe. $45. patsrun.com.
The runaway bride (and groom)
Alex Mason and Emily Fortunate often run together along the Arizona Canal near their home in east Phoenix. They never imagined that stretch of canal might provide a lifetime memory.
Team Alex and Emily won the inaugural Wedding Fun Run 5K there on Feb. 28 to take home an astounding first prize — a $35,000 dream wedding package from Phoenix Bridal Show.
"Incredible, right?" Alex said. "One of the things we loved about this is that our relationship has grown around a mutual love of running, and exercise in general. We both workout avidly and do a half dozen events or so together every year. It all just worked out in a fun way."
Mason learned of the Wedding Run less than a week before from former Georgetown track teammate Dylan Sorensen, now a triathlete training in Scottsdale. The race allows engaged couples to put together a team of at least five runners. The team with the fastest aggregate time wins the dream wedding.
Sorensen couldn't do it, so Mason contacted a couple of his running friends who train in Flagstaff. Andrew Lemoncello and Adam Vess agreed to make the trip down the mountain.
"It was nice just to go down to Phoenix and run," Vess said. "We're getting bombarded with snow right now."
Mason is no slouch as a runner. He won state championships at 1,600 meters and 3,200 meters while at Brophy Prep before moving on to Georgetown. But he was only the fourth fastest guy on his dream (wedding) team, finishing in 16 minutes, 3 seconds.
The Scottish-born Lemoncello, who ran the steeplechase for Great Britain in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, clocked the fastest overall time with 15:08, or a smoking-fast 4 minutes, 52 seconds per mile.
Then there was Vess, a former Nike 5K Outdoor National Champion and teammate of Lemoncello at Team Run Flagstaff, who Mason had competed against in college. Vess finished second in 15:19.
Keegan Healey, a former track and cross-country standout at Desert Mountain High School in Scottsdale and a former roommate of Mason's, tied for third with local professional triathlete Lewis Elliot at 15:51. Luke Mason, Alex's younger brother who runs at Brophy now, finished ninth overall in 16:48.
Emily ran, too, but her time wasn't among the five fastest and therefore didn't count. The top three teams each fielded six runners.
Phoenix Bridal Show owner Nick DiLello, an avid runner, said he was so happy with the event that he's considering making it semi-annual.
"We were happy with the inaugural run, and believe it was a fair competition," he said. "The second-place team was only 1:39 slower. We're definitely continuing and already planning our next race date."
Meanwhile, Alex and Emily are planning an October wedding. They were engaged in July.
"The way they set it up is great, and the people are phenomenal," Mason said. "What they did is set up a series of their vendors who donated different pieces. We should be able to use most, if not all, of it. Emily and I would like to do something outdoors, so we'll have to see about the venue. But the vendors are really excited for us, and they've been really helpful."
Funny thing is, Vess and Lemoncello might have been competing against Mason rather than for him if they had heard about the race earlier.
"Six months earlier and I would have put together a team," Vess said. "But my fiancé and I have already booked almost everything. It wasn't going to help me, so I came down to help Alex."
Good thing, Alex said.
"He knows a lot more fast runners than I do," he said, laughing.
Next up on my yearlong bucket list of races and places is the Mining Country Challenge on Saturday, March 14.
I'll join the Phoenix Metro Bicycle Club on a road-biking tour steeped in Arizona mining history. It begins in Superior and passes through Top-of-the-World, Miami and Globe. It goes over "El Capitan" on the way to Winkelman and Hayden. Then it goes through Kearny and over "End of the World" and winds up back in Superior. It's a 96-mile gut-buster.
Look for my story in Travel & Explore on March. 22. You'll find it at travel.azcentral.com, too.
Reach the reporter at 602-444-8271 or bob.young@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @BobYoungTHI.