Team Crosby Runs for Lung Health

From Double-Lung Transplant to the Chicago Marathon: David Crosby’s Remarkable Journey of Hope and Friendship

This year, Chicago will host David Crosby, an Irishman from Kingscourt in County Cavan, Ireland. David is not new to marathons. Chicago will be his fourth in the last eight years. Being able to train, compete, and finish running 26.2 miles in one marathon is an incredibly rare feat, let alone doing four.

But David is no stranger to incredibly rare feats. David has Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF), a rare and progressive, incurable, and relentless lung disease that causes scarring and hardening of the lungs. Team Crosby will be running to support Respiratory Health Association’s Lung Power Team, as well as their Irish hometown charities.

Ten years ago, shortly after his 40th birthday in 2015, David learned he had IPF. David knew all about IPF, having lost three of his four younger siblings to this same disease.

“I had three days of feeling sorry for myself, laid (there) that morning for a few hours, in bed.  I felt sorry for myself, and then I started thinking, what would my brother do if he had the chance to be here?” he recalls.

David’s only chance of survival, being in end-stage IPF, was a double-lung transplant. In March 2016, an unknown hero donated their lungs, and David underwent a successful transplant surgery. But the road to recovery was not an easy one. Like a marathon, it has been long, with a complex mix of emotions that range from exhilaration to exhaustion. There have been bumps and potholes on the road traveled, including acute lung rejection, severe COVID complete with a coma, three years of dialysis, and a kidney transplant (donated by his wife, Katie Crosby).

A husband and a father to three children, David had a new chance in life post-surgery. With enormous gratitude, he was determined to honor the gift he received, as well as all his loved ones who supported him during this difficult and uncertain time. In addition to challenging himself physically, to honor his donor and fuel his recovery, David had a goal to raise awareness of IPF and to raise funds for lung organizations.

David Crosby knew he could try to pull a few people together to help make this happen, so he approached a mutual friend, David Watters, to assist with the formation of Team Crosby and to eventually channel the community’s goodwill into supporting charities.

With the love and support of David’s wife, Katie, and their children, his mother, and siblings, as well as countless friends and colleagues, and new running mate, David McNally, the two new friends started off on this running journey together, navigating their way to becoming long-distance runners. They started training with 5Ks, progressed to 10Ks, and then moved on to half marathons. In November 2017, they finally made it to their first marathon together: New York City. It was incredibly emotional as they received help along the way from family, friends, and David’s medical team (which included yet another David, cardiothoracic surgeon David Healy), and many others.

When they finished that first marathon, David shared: “It was an amazing feeling, so we did that. And that was supposed to be it.”

Many would have stopped there, but not the Davids. While having a meal in NYC’s Times Square the day after the marathon, the Davids learned about the Abbott’s Super Six Series, which is a set of the top six World Marathons (Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, New York, and Tokyo). David said, once they “heard about the Super Six and the Super Six medal,” … well, that was it; they were hooked. Back in 2017, David said, there were only 2,000 people who had achieved it, “and no one with a transplant had it.” They knew they had to go for it.

To prepare for marathons, the two Davids run together as much as possible, along with David’s personal trainer, Andy O’Brien, who kept him on point all these years. Their faces light up when they talk about running together. They like to “bounce off each other” and joke around. But they know when it gets down to the marathon, it is serious business.

“We’re realistic as well,” David reflected. “We’re not just trying to do it. The three marathons we did, they’re all (finished) within about a minute of each other, so we know what the body can do now.”

Despite completing their last marathon race in London in 2019, the friends remain grounded. “We know it’s not going to be the same. It still needs to be the same kind of plan,” David said. When it comes down to race day itself, “David (McNally) knows to leave me alone, not to talk to me because of the lungs and all that. I’ll be focusing on me—breathing. I won’t be chatting. I hope to have music.”

For the Chicago race, the duo started training in March. Both Davids had some health issues, opting to start slowly and ease into training. David McNally added, “I had a few injuries myself. David then had a few injuries, a few setbacks, but we’re back now; and both of us could bring it in” and finish their fourth marathon.

They are both excited to run in Chicago. David considers himself a Chicago Bears fan and has a fondness for the City of Big Shoulders: “Because of my fondness of Chicago and the crowd; I know the crowd. It has an electricity about it, and Americans have that goodwill, and whatever it is, it’s brilliant.”

The Bank of America Chicago Marathon, established in 1977, has become a prestigious fall running event, and has grown into one of the world’s premier marathons. It is known for its fast course, crisscrossing through Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods, going past iconic architecture, highlighting the city’s dynamic atmosphere and community spirit, all the while being viewed by over one million spectators. Participating runners have represented all 50 US states as well as over one hundred countries.