Running | Survivor savors running

Mari-Jo Fraser of Bellevue will be among a handful of entrants in Sunday's University of Washington Medical Center Seattle Half Marathon with a transplanted liver.

Certainly she'll be the only one with a World Series ring. And it's doubtful that anyone else will choke up with emotion as often as she will at the thought of simply being able to be a part of the event.

In late September 2003, Fraser was nearing the end of another season as the only woman on a local amateur men's baseball team. She didn't feel well and went to her doctor, who prescribed anti-reflux medicine. When her eyes and skin turned yellow, her husband, Sean, took her to the emergency room.

She was diagnosed with food poisoning, but when she threw up pain medicine, her husband rushed her back. She slipped into a three-week coma, and Fraser awoke with a new liver.

Fraser had acute liver failure, and unlike other organs, liver functions can't be turned over to a machine. There's a window of a few days to find a donor liver. Fraser was fortunate.

After several weeks of rest, the 32-year-old began her comeback with the aid of a walker.

Her humor never failed her. The scar the transplant procedure left bore a resemblance to the distinctive hood ornament of Mercedes automobiles.

"It wasn't the Mercedes I wanted," she said. "I would have preferred to find one in the garage."

Fraser bounced back quickly. By the time baseball practice resumed in February 2003, about five months after surgery, she was able to play again.

The former softball standout at Lindbergh High School in Renton has always played ball, but baseball has become her first love.

"I was hooked," she said of her first taste of that sport. "I never went back to softball."

Fraser tried out for a men's team when she was 8 months pregnant. She was drafted in the first round.

"I had my son on a Friday and played on the following Monday," she said of Montana, now 9.

That was in 1998.

"They can't get rid of me," she said.

Early this month her Gators team won the Men's Senior Baseball League World Series in Phoenix. One of two alternating left fielders on the team, Fraser was instrumental in her team's title. When a base runner tried to score from second on a single, she threw a strike to the cutoff man and the runner was thrown out to end the inning in a one-run Gators win.

Fraser also plays on a traveling women's team and barely missed making the USA Baseball women's team that competed in the World Cup last year. She came down with heatstroke and food poisoning on a 117-degree day in Arizona. Fraser plans to try out next year.

Despite the demands of playing on three teams and caring for two boys — younger son Liam is 4 — Fraser finds time to run at least four or five times per week.

She was introduced to running by three-time women's Olympic marathon trials entrant Alysun Deckert, who serves as coach of the UW Medical School's Team Transplant.

Deckert approached Fraser while she was still lying in bed after the operation.

"Are you kidding?" Fraser asked when Deckert identified herself. "Who's the one on drugs here?"

Nevertheless, she took home the literature and ran the Seattle half marathon a year later, finishing the 13.1 miles in about 2 hours, 45 minutes.

She has completed nearly a dozen half marathons since, and even stepped up to a full marathon in 2005.

"It was way too soon," she said of the 26.2-mile race. "I got to about 18 miles and had to stop. But sometime I'd like to do one, when I'm ready."

Until then, she's happy just to be running, playing baseball, and competing in rec-league basketball during the three months she isn't on the diamond.

Sometimes friends commiserate with her about taking medication every day.

"It's not a problem, but a privilege," Fraser said. "Everything fell into place for me. I'm very lucky. It gives a whole new meaning to Thanksgiving."