Runners wear blue at Rock 'n' Roll Marathon to remember their fallen soldiers

DUPONT, Pierce County — When Lisa Hallett's life felt abstract and upside down, she turned to the one thing she could control: She went for a run.

It was August 2009 and she had just learned her husband, Capt. John Hallett, had been killed with three other soldiers after an IED hit the Stryker vehicle transporting him back from a goodwill mission in southern Afghanistan.

Lisa had given birth to Heidi, the couple's third child, a few weeks earlier. She was suddenly filled with emptiness. She couldn't think. She couldn't feel. But she could move.

"Everything is just raw and it's overwhelming," Lisa said. "A lot of sorrow emerges from facing a lifetime without your husband. You're right here at the brink of your life without your best friend, the person you love more than life itself. You're facing forever without him, the rest of your life without that person."

Lisa used motion and mileage to work through the grieving process. Almost two years later, she's still running.

She turned the coping mechanism into a way to celebrate her husband's memory and the lives of other soldiers killed in combat. At the third-annual Rock 'n' Roll Seattle Marathon on Saturday, she will be joined by other members of wear blue: run to remember — the organization she co-founded. They will form a swath of blue, a living memorial running among more than 26,000 race participants.

Two days after Lisa heard the news of John's death, she put on her running shoes and met her friend Carrie. They took off down a trail near DuPont. It was quiet. They didn't go far. Because she just had a baby, Lisa wasn't supposed to run. She did it anyway, putting one foot in front of the other as she processed her grief.

"There were days I'd hit the corner and I'd stop and cry and that's all I could do," Lisa Hallett said.

She kept running, and the 5th Stryker Brigade — deployed out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord — continued to experience casualties. More spouses turned to running. Then they started to run together, and a few ran the Seattle Marathon in November 2009.

A few months later, they made the group official, meeting in the parking lot of an on-base Burger King to run around the nearby air field. That first group of 12, wearing blue Army physical-training shirts — John's favorite color — grew to the 23 who participated in the 2010 Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in Seattle. A year later, wear blue: run to remember has grown to more than 250 members who will be in Seattle as runners or supporters.

"I'm really passionate about running as a coping mechanism and as a healing device," said Erin O'Connor, who co-founded the organization with Hallett. "I think this (the marathon) is just the kind of thing that pulls it all together."

At the start of this year's marathon, the group will line up in the 17th corral — John was in the 1-17th Infantry — wearing matching blue shirts. The announcer will read the names of 43 soldiers killed and, when the race begins, they will create a living memorial moving along the course.

They will also operate a water station 7 ½ miles into the race as the course bends around Lake Washington. Competitors will first pass a sign that reads wear blue: run to remember. A second sign will read, "Honoring the service and sacrifice of the American military." Full-sized American flags will each have a black ribbon with the name of a soldier embroidered in gold. John Hallett's flag will be held by his parents, John and Wendy.

"We want to humanize the loss," Lisa Hallett said. "John's not a number, he's my husband. He's my best friend. He likes Jack in the Box. He doesn't like to shave on the weekends. He's a very real person who lived a very real life. But when you don't know John, he does become a number and just another casualty. We really want people to connect with the faces and the families and the realness of this loss."

Grew up together

John and Lisa grew up together in Concord, Calif. They spent high-school spring breaks together in Mexico building houses. John went to West Point, where he played water polo. Lisa attended University of California Santa Barbara.

They started dating John's senior year at West Point. Then he went to Army Ranger School. Lisa created her own challenge by training for a marathon. They were married in 2003 and stationed in Hawaii. John deployed to Iraq, and Lisa ran another marathon.

He came back, Lisa gave birth to their first child, Jackson — now 5 — and she ran a marathon. After Lisa delivered Bryce — now 3 — she ran a marathon.

When John deployed to Afghanistan on July 14, 2009, Lisa put up a photo collage at eye level for her children, so they could get a good look at their father.

Lisa Hallett is now a 30-year-old single mother to three children. Those photos keep her husband's memory alive. He was a man who took pride in being organized, worked long hours and had stacks of books on Afghanistan next to the bed. He was a good father. Lisa's best friend.

John Hallett is one of many soldiers honored by wear blue: run to remember.

When the IED hit John's Stryker vehicle, Capt. Cory Jenkins was also killed. He had a bucket list of things he wanted to accomplish, and his wife, Brooke, has taken it upon herself to see those through.

She doesn't enjoy running, but she completed the full Rock 'n' Roll Seattle Marathon in 2010 and will run the half-marathon this year.

"I'm not going to stop, because he isn't here to do it himself," said Brooke, who has also gone bungee jumping in New Zealand and, although not a swimmer, plans to eventually train to swim out to Alcatraz. "I need to do it for him. There were a lot of times that I wanted to quit, because it wasn't very fun for me. But it was a way to stay connected. I couldn't stop."

Twenty years ago Sybil Williamson ran a marathon. This weekend, she will try another, making the trip from southern Louisiana to Seattle to honor the memory of her son, Patrick, a sergeant who was killed in Afghanistan in October 2009.

Patrick had talked about running a marathon in Seattle, and Sybil promised to be waiting at the finish line.

"It was something he considered doing, so it's kind of like I'm doing it for him in more ways that one," said Sybil, whose husband, Buddy, will hold Patrick's flag and be joined by their daughter, Betsy, and two other family members.

One of Patrick's good friends, Sgt. John Diaz, will run with Sybil the first half of the race. When he heard she would run for her son, he promised to support her.

"He just wants to be there to support me, because I'm Patrick's mom," said Sybil, who always wears her son's dog tags. "It's just real special."

Lisa Hallett called the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon her group's "touchstone" event, but after it ends there is still work to be done. Every Saturday wear blue: run to remember meets at 9 a.m. in a park in DuPont. It is a group of husbands and wives, soldiers and spouses who create a support system built around running.

Call out the names

They gather in a circle on a basketball court and introduce each other. There is a moment of silence and they call out the names of soldiers killed in combat. They close with a prayer and set out along one of the courses they mark with small American flags. The group continues to grow organically.

"We're alive," Hallett said. "I'm alive. John died, but I'm alive, so I can and I will live. I'm going to choose to live in the most powerful way that I can.

She is grateful for memorials that honor the sacrifices of military members but says, "They're rocks. They're stuck here. We become the memorial ourselves when we choose to live and push forward in a sea of blue and say we live in honor of the lives that were given in sacrifice to our nation. On race day this year we're going to have more than 250 people in blue. Give us five, 10 years, we're going to have 26,000 people in blue rather than 26,000 people passing blue."

Mason Kelley: 206-464-8277 or mkelley@seattletimes.com