CraigsEulogy

Eulogy Delivered by Charlie Hoover - Aug 13, 2008 and Aug 24, 2008

In Memoriam - Craig Chambers Jan 19, 1949 - Aug 7, 2008

I am honored that Craig’s mom Claire and sister Carole and his life partner Kathy asked me to speak to you here today. I am also devastated by the loss that we are here to mourn.

My relationship with Craig spans 40 years going back to a time long ago in a galaxy far, far away. We were roommates at UC Santa Cruz during the era of flower power and the Vietnam War. We were young, thirsting for change and burning with the desire to learn and with that knowledge to understand our world. Craig, or Anton as some of us called him often by his middle name, was a math whiz, but really could do just about anything academically, with the possible exception of learning a foreign language. In fact, I think the only reason he finally was able to complete his degree was because the language requirement was dropped. We shared science classes, psychology classes, Shakespeare classes, art history classes. We talked endlessly about time travel, entropy, Buckminster Fuller, politics, Norman O. Brown, the war, the latest avant garde film – you name it, we discussed it.

We graduated and went our separate ways for a few years, seeing each other occasionally, and were then reunited in 1977 when my job transferred me to LA. Craig had just started running long distances, and by that I mean ten miles – neither of us were athletes in school, and I was in awe of what these distance runners were doing. Craig finished a marathon, and encouraged me to train for one, too. Craig ran with me on my first – the Lompoc Marathon- in 1978, giving me pointers and encouragement as we ran through the flower fields of Lompoc. I loved it as much as he did, and we were both hooked. We trained together and ran many races together. We’d run a race in Santa Monica then head up Las Flores Canyon and over Saddle Peak down to Mulholland and back. We began to view our world differently – we used to say that if we could see it, we could run to it.

I turned out to be the faster more competitive runner, but Craig was always the more adventuresome one, always looking to grander horizons, to accomplish things that to normal folk would seem unthinkably impossible. One day about 30 years ago, he called Ava and me and asked us if we would count laps for him on the Santa Monica Community College track for his first 50 miler. We agreed, thinking to ourselves what a nutty thing to do, what sane person would do 200 laps on a dirt track? Well, watching Craig loop the track was amazing, and the following year I was out there, too, hooked on that new distance! He persuaded me to try the Western States 100 Miler with him and again, what seemed like a nutty idea turned into an incredible adventure that we repeated numerous times.

Craig’s athletic accomplishments have truly become running folklore. He finished more than 200 marathons on several continents, ran dozens of 50 and 100 milers, completed an Iron Man in Hawaii, made numerous double crossings of the Grand Canyon and the Pier to Peak run from Santa Monica Pier to the top of Mt. Wilson with groups of friends he encouraged to join him, succeeded at an epic solo triathlon in Death Valley, which included a 10 mile swim in the pool at Scotty’s Castle, and he completed this self-designed triathlon long before Death Valley was the place to race. In 1980, Craig, his sister Carole, Ava and I opened Phidippides Running Shop in Encino, and Craig was soon getting to work by running from his apartment in Santa Monica to the store and then back in the evening covering a marathon a day for five years. People read about it in the Daily News, the LA Times, saw it on the evening news. He was, in a word, amazing, simply amazing.

But Craig was much, much more than simply an amazing athlete. Craig was a thinker and writer with an insatiable thirst for all things intellectual. He never lost that desire to learn and to understand. He remained a student of philosophy, psychology, mathematics, science, literature and politics. He wrote poetry, essays and short stories. He was forever taking classes at Santa Monica City College, even though he already had a double BA in philosophy and psychology from Santa Cruz, and an MBA from UC Irvine. It seemed that every week he had devoured some new book and was excited to share it with everyone, often bringing you your own copy of it if you showed the slightest bit of interest. Those of you who came to the evening fun runs at the store know what I am talking about. A run with Craig meant not just a run, but a colloquy concerning the latest math puzzle he had come across, the latest political issue, the latest cosmological theory... He might pass out sheets with a problem to solve, and then discuss how to approach it – he didn’t want to give you the answer – he wanted to help you understand how to approach it and solve it for yourself.

Kierkegaard was one of Craig’s favorite philosophers. He wrote a short treatise on the thematic parallels between Kierkegaard and JD Salinger, one of his favorite writers. He may have handed that essay to some of you when you visited the store, along with his guide how to train for ultras and the story of the Pier to Peak run. He was in the habit of doing that, and it didn’t matter whether you were an experienced ultra runner or just trying to get around the block.

While there is no question that Craig had little use for concepts of god and practices of religion, Craig clearly meets the paradigm for Kierkegaard’s knight of faith. Amidst the muck and the frogs (a reference used by Kierkegaard to refer to small minds with prejudices and little dreams or hopes for the future), Craig said, no, I will continue despite the odds, I will try despite the absurdity, I will have hope for myself and others instead of giving in to despair and resignation. And this attitude of Craig’s did not only come into play during his battle with cancer. You could always count on Craig to be realistic and yet hopeful, aware of the present dangers and yet playful, serious about the troubles presented, and yet able to see the lovely ironies and absurdities that make life worth living and set us apart from the rest of creation. His responses to life’s injustices, be they personal or global, were unique. He never reacted or analyzed on the basis of the “principle of the thing.” Craig never behaved self-righteously, never dismissed anyone, never put on a holier-than-thou attitude.

With Kathy, and occasionally with Claire, he traveled far and wide to China, Southeast Asia, Central America, Africa, Russia, Switzerland, usually to do some exotic run – the Great Wall Marathon, the Davos Switzerland Ultra, the Moscow Marathon, sipping warm tea served by the military at the aid stations ... His descriptions of the places he visited inspired a spirit of adventure just listening to him.

And finally, he shared with us along the way his truly unique views of human nature, of how to treat people, of how to react to adversity, modeling a way of being in the world that we might all emulate. Even as he battled cancer, he was positive, always reporting the good news when asked how he was doing, always focusing on living rather than dying. Up until the last couple of months, those who did not know how seriously ill he was would never have guessed that anything was wrong. The depth of his emotional and physical strength allowed, in fact, MADE him run and later to walk regularly in spite of the pain he was no doubt feeling. I don’t think many of us knew how really seriously ill he was until the very end, because he didn’t talk about it. Craig would often call me up and try to apologize to me for not feeling quite up to coming out to the store to work, but that he knew he’d be feeling better and be there soon.

But perhaps the most amazing thing of all about Craig was that in spite of his unbelievable feats, fantastic travels and adventures, he was just Craig - he always made you feel that you could do any of those things, too. He inspired everyone he came in contact with to think and dream and reach beyond themselves, physically, intellectually and spiritually and in the process enriched all our lives. In the days since he passed, countless customers have called, stopped by, written, emailed sending their thoughts, their prayers, their condolences to Craig’s family and his friends at the store. But what speaks eloquently of Craig’s special nature is a common thread in virtually every message I have been fortunate enough to hear – that Craig truly listened to them and took pleasure and honest delight in hearing about THEIR accomplishments and how THEY had reached beyond their own limits – however modest those accomplishments might have been in the larger scheme of things. His empathy was a rare and special gift.

He was a treasure to be around, a gentle soul with a huge heart and wearing laughably enormous shoes and we are going to miss him terribly.

Ava’s brother Tony described his passing as leaving a hole in the universe, and sadly, we feel that every morning we get up and realize that this is not just a bad dream, that at the store we won’t look up and see Craig, the Moose, strolling down the sidewalk toward the store with his canvas bag full of juice and health cookies in one hand, and some new tome in the other; that he won’t be reading the book I bought for him in Barnes and Noble a couple of weeks ago, thinking to myself “I know Craig will love this one.”

In spite of the pain and sense of loss we are all feeling, Craig, I think, would want us to look forward and go on.

Craig’s literary talents included poetry, and I think if he were here he would like this one. The poet Mark Strand wrote:

"Explain (to your children) that you live between two great darks, the first

With an ending, the second without one, that the luckiest

Thing is having been born, that you live in a blur

Of hours and days, months and years, and believe

It has meaning, despite the occasional fear

You are slipping away with nothing completed, nothing

To prove you existed."

We know Craig existed as he has left his mark on every individual here – different kinds of landmarks in each case, to be sure, but remarkably significant ones nonetheless. During his life he replaced the blur of hours and days and months and years with hours and days and months and years of encouragement to others, with challenges to himself, and thus to those around him to be more, to do more, to see more, to know more, to understand more, to share more, and while the second dark has suddenly and unjustly come upon him now (and I know to the very last he didn’t think it would and refused to accept it as inevitable) if he were here he would exhort us to set our sights high, demand more of ourselves and accomplish much more than we can even imagine in every aspect of our lives, all in the gentle, calm and unassuming way that we all loved about him.

Tribute Delivered by Fagio - Aug 24, 2008

In Memoriam - Craig Chambers Jan 19, 1949 -- Aug 7, 2008

MOOSE

I first met the Moose briefly in 1981 when I was working at Holiday Health Spa, now called Bally’s Total Fitness. He was being filmed for a segment on Eye In LA. Since then he and I had become very close. It is very hard for me to put to paper what the Moose means to me.

Whenever I think of the Moose, I think of his big, shit-eating grin. Behind it is pure optimism. No matter how bad you felt, one of the Moose’s smiles could pull you out of a slump.

I have completed many runs and races with the Moose. The distances varied from a 5K to ultras. No matter what the weather conditions were, pain from a current or chronic injury, or just having a rough time out there, the Moose saw the silver lining and more importantly he made you see it as well.

The Moose and I have had several epic runs.

First and foremost is the Pier to Peak. Moose came up with idea of running from the Santa Monica Pier to Mt. Wilson. However, he had no idea how to plot the course. He provided me with A to B coordinates and left the rest up to me. He gave me one of his smiles and that was all the fuel I needed to get creative. We ran P2P four times and each time with a different group of runners. Up until the last one, the Moose ran/hiked/walked, whatever it took to complete the distance. For months leading up the event, whenever the run was mentioned, he would smile. Every time I changed the course a little, he kept smiling and saying, “Wow, this is fantastic.” Followed by two more wows. “Wow, wow.” He was the main reason that I looked forward to coordinating this event.

The biggest race in my life and the one that has left the deepest impression, is Badwater. I knew when I entered this race that I would only be doing it one time, so I needed to do everything possible to finish it. Unless you are Marshall Ulrich, you depend on your crew to finish this event. My crew consisted of my wife, who did just about everything, Darth Vader who did the toilet paper dance, Cockodile Done Me was my nurse, Frog was my trash collector, and the Moose was my inspiration. I knew I would be experiencing some real lows and would not want to spend these occasional miserable times with people that were not extremely close to me. While on the course, the Moose kept my mind busy with math and theory problems, recalling his time in the desert and mutual friends. Every time it was the Moose’s turn to pace me, he said with a beaming smile, “Wow, you’re doing fantastic”. “Wow, wow.” That is something that will stick with me forever.

Another great event was running the entire length of San Fernando Road. We started in downtown LA and finished in Santa Clarita. When we had a long spell without crew or other runners, the Moose recounted stories of the Grizz, Schnitzel, or as some may know him, Dallas. That is one thing about being friends with the Moose and the Frog; there are many nicknames for everyone. He told me about Grizz’s attempt at the Barkley Marathons.

I don’t have enough time to go into that.

We also ran the Ridge Route. This road was the old Grapevine, but nowadays we use the Interstate 5. The day we picked to run happen to be one of the hottest of the year and my wife’s baby shower. We ran by historic hotels and storefronts and imagined what it must have been like in the 30’s. By the time we finished, the Moose was so spent from dehydration (if you know the Moose, this is extremely rare condition) that he drank an entire gallon and half of apple juice. Even when he was spent, he smiled and drank, smiled and drank, followed by “wow, wow.” I got a call later that day from Elena, (one half of the Buffalos) complaining that I am responsible for her gaining weight from eating cake at the shower and another call from the Frog complaining about having to attend a party that had anything to with kids.

Another fun run was a double-crossing of the Grand Canyon. The scenery was beautiful and the company was the best. I shared a hotel room with the Moose and the Frog, under one condition, that I bring my Scooby Doo pillow. The morning before the run, the Moose did his normal routine, five poops and he was rearing to go. Once we hit the bottom of the canyon, we, not surprisingly ran into a friend of the Moose. Her name escapes me but her voice didn’t. “Oh, my god. I can’t believe it’s you.”

One last memorable run/climb I will mention, was ascending Mt. Whitney. I showed up the Frog and Moose’s hotel late one night with Scooby Doo in hand and was received with a huge smile. We went to bed immediately and then awoke shortly several hours before the run. Moose needed extra time to get all five poops out. Once we got to the never-ending switchbacks, I decided to run ahead and wait for them, repeating this over and over. I started to get a little light-headed and I asked the Moose, if this was going to be problem for me later. He said “no, your fine.” Well, by the time we hit the summit, I had already taken four Excedrin’s and needed to get off the mountain. I stumbled down the mountain, cursing F--- Kilimanjaro, F--- Hardrock. I got back to the car and fell asleep waiting for them. When I awoke, I was better, but still a little out of it and, as always, Moose and Frog were looking chipper and had big smiles on their faces.

I think that is the thing I will remember most about Craig Anton Chambers, the Moose, his optimism and that big, infectious smile.

FAGIO

Tribute Delivered by Kartoon - Aug 24, 2008

In Memoriam - Craig Chambers Jan 19, 1949 -- Aug 7, 2008

My Friend Craig Chambers

Before I can even begin to talk about Craig Chambers, The Moose or my friend Goofy, I want to take a moment to thank the family, Kathy and all of you for sharing this unique individual with me.

I like to thank Charlie for his wonderful talk last week and setting Craig’s life to poetry.

Unfortunately, I am not a runner, though I have ran just as many miles as many of you. My running career came to an end after I met Craig and his wonderful partner Kathy.

You see, years ago there was this guy who had given up on life and he didn’t believe that he had a future. All of his dreams had turned to nightmares. He had lost everything. Drugs, alcohol, gang banging and incarcerations had robbed him of his life. Members of his community feared him; his own family had distanced themselves from him. He was all-alone.

This guy was physically, mentally and spiritually bankrupt, existing in a world where he didn’t care if he really lived or died. He didn’t care about himself nor did he care about you.

He slowly drifted away from all things worthwhile and found no reason to move forward. He was homeless and sleeping in vacant houses with misery as his friend.

This guy fell into a hole that he could not get out of no matter how hard he tried he sunk lower and lower. One day he began to holler for help and his pleas went unnoticed.

A trucker passed by and stepped out of his truck to use the restroom; in the distance the trucker heard the faint plea. He approached the hole and saw the man. He told the man he would return with a ladder a rope or tow truck and get him out of the hole. He never returned.

A religious man passed by with a hand full of religious material and looked down in the hole and saw the man stuck, drowning in sorrow, sinking further in despair. Like the trucker he promised to return with his congregation and rescue the man. He never returned.

The guy in the hole lost faith in every one and just wanted to die. With all the energy he could muster up, he cried out for the last time, someone please help me as he fell to the bottom of the hole.

All of a sudden there was this magical voice, the guy in the hole looked up and saw this tall thin white guy with a fixed smiled looking down at him. He also had this lady with silver hair smiling just as brightly next to him. Neither of them wore a police uniform.

The guy in the hole admitted that he had many problems and wanted help. As he waited for the voice to say that he too would return, he noticed this guy bending over tying his the shoestrings of his running shoes. This thin guy took a few steps back and began to run, not away from the hole, but to the hole, he leap in the air and landed on his feet next to the man in the hole.

The man in the hole became angry, bitter, resentful and did not trust the judgment of this man as he asked the question; you dummy, why did you jump in the hole with me now its two of us.

Craig Chamber simply said, my man I’ve been down here before and I can show you the way out.

That guy in the hole was I. And I am here today to thank Craig and Kathy for showing me the way out.

This is where our friendship began many years ago.

Not only did Craig help me to get into a drug program but he was there every week to support and refuse to give up on me or allow me to give up on myself.

Craig found out I had a passion for writing and encouraged me to continue like no one has ever done. At six months of sobriety Craig gave me a laptop computer and suggested I read and type.

I can go on and on with magical moments like this but I do want to share this with you. I don’t know much about your marathon races, trails or how you conserve your energy for 26 plus mile, I do know that I looked up one day and saw Craig in his shorts and tee shirt running through the streets of Watts during the middle of a fierce gang warfare. The police stopped Him and Kathy and said, “Do you know where you are at?” Craig smile and said yes as he continue to run to my house.

I remember when Craig brought countless pairs of running shoes to my neighborhood; he had all the gang bangers wearing flouresant yellow shoes three sizes to big.

Today because Craig took a chance at change I have a life. Today a lot of Craig is in me. He didn’t waste time talking about the problem he jumped into the solution.

In closing just remember that Craig lives on. To all of you runners when you feel like giving up, think about Craig who ran to the bitter end. When life seems unbearable remember The Moose who jumped into darker holes to help someone. When you just need a laugh think about my friend Goofy getting hard-core gang members to wear loud yellow running shoes.

When you look up to the sky and noticed the oversized shoe print in the clouds, smile because my friend Craig Chambers, The Moose, Goofy is still running setting records/

Sincerely

Ronald “Kartoon” Antwine

Tribute Delivered by Scott Sullivan - Aug 24, 2008

In Memoriam - Craig Chambers Jan 19, 1949 -- Aug 7, 2008

My name is Scott and I’m a runaholic.

Craig had an enormous influence on my life, and I’m going to share some of those details with you today. Craig knew more people than anyone I know, and he had a significant influence on all of his friend’s lives.

Since college I thought it would cool to run a marathon, but I didn’t get around to it until 1989 when I found myself with lots of free time. My brother Brian got me going, saying now was the time for that marathon. We trained together a bit but his full time school and job did not allow time for marathon training. Fortunately my dad suggested that I run with the Mountain Goats, which is a running club that runs on various trails in the Santa Monica Mountains.

I eagerly attended one of their Saturday runs and announced that I was training for a marathon. Craig and I hit it off immediately. We had lots in common, but oddly enough we spent many hours in the beginning pondering a TV show called “Twin Peaks”. This was a short lived David Lynch show that always left you wondering what had happened by the end of each episode. We would discuss the plot details for hours and hours, perfect for long distance running.

Craig discussed my marathon training with me, realizing that I had no idea what I was doing and was probably not on the path to success. He took me under his wing and got me sufficiently trained to finish my first marathon in a respectable time.

I think everyone here would agree that finishing a marathon is a life changing experience, and it certainly was for me. Now its time for some audience participation. Show of hands. How many people here ran their first marathon or ultra with Craig’s help and encouragement?

After my marathon I stopped running. I had accomplished my goal and I saw no point in all that running. However, Craig and I had become good friends during the training and I missed him and some of my other running friends. I decided I could return to the Saturday runs and pursue these relationships without having to run any more marathons. It wasn’t long before I was not only running with Craig on Saturday but also on the Sunday “Over the Hill” run from Encino to Santa Monica. Soon we added a mid week run on Wednesday morning.

When a marathon would approach, everyone in our group would be signing up. Craig would point out that I had done as much training as anyone else, and I should just come along and do the race. It was hard to resist this logic, and I was dragged by peer pressure into more and more marathons. Of course it would not stop there, as I was pressured into an ultra world of ever increasing distances. Like many others who acquire an addiction, I succumbed to peer pressure and wound up an addict. Running is now a joyous and integral part of my life, and I love it. It is difficult to imagine what my life would be like without running. Thank you Craig for getting me started on a life of running.

Now I’d like to expand on few things that Charlie mentioned.

First, the Camp Goofy Book Club

Goofy was Craig’s nickname in the time before he was known as Moose. Runs organized by Craig were referred to as Camp Goofy.

Craig loved to read. He always carried at least a few books with him. One Sunday we were doing a normal long run. The North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA was a current political topic that we discussed on this run. I had a handful of Economics classes in college and had a decent understanding of the pro and con arguments. On this particular day I happened to be in a debating mood. Whatever point Craig would offer, I would take the other side and debate vigorously. I think I did a pretty good job because by the end of the run Craig was completely exacerbated. At the next run, Craig emerged from his car and made a beeline straight to me. He presented me with an 800+ page, hardcover book by Michael Porter entitled “The Competitive Advantage of Nations” and said: “This book has the answers to your arguments.” This was the first of countless books I would receive from Craig. We read the book together and discussed the concepts during our runs. This was my introduction to the Camp Goofy Reading Club.

We would branch out to cover other topics including economics, politics, race relations, physics, cosmology, urban planning, the environment, and many more. There would be reading assignments and we would discuss during the run. It was effectively a book club that conducted its discussions while running. The joke in those days was: anyone can run the mileage we are running; the tough part is keeping up with the reading assignments. Looking back, there was actually a lot truth in this statement and it wasn’t really a joke.

Next, the Camp Goofy Math Club

Another “club” within our running group was the Camp Goofy Math Club. Contrary to popular belief, we rarely solved any problems on the run. It is tough to solve problems without at least a pencil and paper. Instead we discussed the problem itself and debated approaches and techniques. Solutions would be presented at the following run and discussed, being either accepted or rejected. A single problem could sometimes drag on for weeks. Some of the problems came from Mensa tests and other books or periodicals, but the best problems came from a magazine called “The New Scientist”. It was a monthly publication that Craig would bring to the run as soon as he got it. He would explain the problem at the beginning of the run, often handing a Xerox to anyone interested. We would discuss approaches during the run and then go our separate ways to solve the problem. Usually by the next run one or more would have an answer, although sometimes these were rejected and the quest continued. It was a rare problem that had to await the solution in next month’s magazine.

Craig was a purest. He used only pencil and paper to solve a problem. On the more difficult problems that lent themselves to computer analysis, I would often write a program and let it run overnight to find the solution. Despite only using a pencil and paper, Craig was usually the first with the solution.

Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon is my favorite place to run. I first went there with Craig in the early 90s. It has since become an almost yearly ritual. That first year I did the single crossing and Craig of course did a double crossing. Double crossing means South Rim to North Rim and back in a single day, approximately 45 miles and 13,000’ feet of elevation gain depending on the route. This would rank a bit tougher than a difficult 50 mile trail race.

I finished my initial single crossing slightly ahead of Craig. I was very tired and happy that my day was done. I expressed this to Craig when he reached the North Rim. He told me that he was every bit as tired as me, but this wasn’t a problem and he was running back. This was an important early lesson for me. As I progressed into running longer and longer distances, I realized that this is correct. You can be very tired and still cover incredible distances. Being tired is not necessarily a good reason to stop.

The following year I tried my first double crossing, and had the first of many major blowups. In those days, there was definitely a reason I was know as “Road Kill”. Running ahead of Craig on the return trip in the heat of the day, I became very dehydrated. I was lying in the shade next to the trail when Craig caught me. He got me on my feet and marched me into Phantom Ranch. There I rested for a few hours and drank lots of an electrolyte drink supplied by the ranger. I wanted to spend the night there, but Craig wouldn’t allow it. When I was ready, he dragged back to the South Rim. This would not be the last time that Craig got me out of a jam.

Every year Craig would come to the finish of the Angeles Crest race and run the last few miles with me. With this years race fast approaching, Craig is in my thoughts. I miss him greatly and will particularly miss him at the finish line this year.