 |
| A LASTING SMILE |
| by Don Norcross, June 14, 2002 |
| Debbie Ryan, a "blossoming" marathoner, was living life to the fullest until it was cut tragically short The picture was snapped minutes after Debbie Ryan crossed the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon finish line, and it tells you all you need to know about the Carlsbad runner, wife, mother of two young daughters. No slave to fashion, Ryan, 33, isn't wearing some stylish synthetic-material running singlet embossed with a designer logo. She's wearing her lucky cotton, tie-dyed T-shirt, the one she bought on a trip to the zoo with the family. But more than the shirt and long, baggy black shorts, Ryan's wearing a smile. A beaming, cheek-to-cheek, teeth-whitening-ad smile that captures her excitement about qualifying for the Boston Marathon. More accurately, the picture captures Ryan's inner beauty, her spirit, her love of life. The day after the June 2 Rock 'n' Roll, Ryan already was on the Internet, looking into hotel and airline reservations for next year's Boston Marathon. Sadly, two days after qualifying for Boston, Ryan was killed in a freak accident moments after sitting on a sidewalk near her home. |
| Reading a children's magazine to her 5-year-old daughter, Megan, and other kids in the neighborhood, Ryan spotted a driverless sports-utility vehicle rolling toward them. According to witnesses, Ryan yelled at the children to get out of the way and pushed two of them out of the Isuzu Rodeo's path. As Ryan tried to escape, the SUV ran her over. None of the children was injured seriously. "She just tried and worked very, very hard to improve all the time," said Kathy Biddle, Ryan's cross country coach at Clearwater High. A cheerleader at the University of Tampa, Ryan was teaching in Chicago when she met her husband, Paul Ryan. When living in Chicago, Ryan bundled up and ran in the cold of winter, the wind whipping off Lake Michigan, surrounded by cross-country skiers in Lincoln Park and skaters on the lake. Wanting to get back in shape, Ryan began running seriously after giving birth to Megan. Ryan would quit teaching to raise her children. Ryan ran her first half-marathon in 1997. She moved to Carlsbad 2 1/2 years ago and made her marathon debut in January's San Diego Marathon, finishing in 3 hours, 53 minutes. She had hooked up recently with a coach, Gordy Haskett, a former 2:34 marathoner and manager at the Encinitas Movin Shoes. Haskett remembers Ryan coming in, her kids in tow, Megan sometimes grabbing shoes and clothes off the rack and heading to the dressing room. About Megan and her younger sister, Chloe, 2, Haskett joked, "They'd all but destroy the store." In January, Ryan joined the Racey Ladies, a coastal North County group of runners, many of whom have children. The women would drop their kids at a recreation center with day care, then hit the trails. Gina Correll remembers that at first Ryan wasn't keen about running on trails. Fearful of snakes, she made Correll run in front of her. That fear soon passed. "By the end, she was running through beehives," said Correll. "We encountered a rattlesnake one time and she wanted to be the first one up to see it." On one trail run, Ryan took a nasty fall, gashing her knee. The cut required stitches. Ryan's first question to the doctor? "When can I start running?" By April, her training under Haskett's guidance kicking in, Ryan ran the La Jolla Half Marathon in 1:45. Although Rock 'n' Roll would be only her second marathon, Ryan started thinking she might be able to qualify for Boston. To qualify, Ryan would have to finish Rock 'n Roll in 3 hours, 40 minutes or less. She finished in 3:36:36. That's why her smile is so wide in the picture. "You couldn't wipe that grin off her face," said Paul. "She was sleeping with that grin on her face, that's how ecstatic she was." |
 |
 |
| Mother killed after pushing youths to safety, sister says by Agnes Roletti, June 7, 2002 |
| CARLSBAD - A mother whose life revolved around her two young children spent the last seconds of her life saving her 5-year-old daughter and neighborhood youngsters as a driverless sports-utility vehicle rolled backward toward them. Debbie Ryan, 33, was killed in a freak accident Tuesday afternoon as she sat on a sidewalk near her home, looking through a children's magazine that she and the youngsters had just picked up from the neighborhood mailbox. After hearing the black Isuzu Rodeo hit a curb and seeing it coming toward them, Ryan yelled at the children to get out of the way and pushed them out of the vehicle's path, witnesses said. As she turned to run away, the SUV ran her over. "Debbie saved the children's lives," said Sherry Bowlin, Ryan's 38-year-old sister. "When she yelled at the kids, they just froze. So that's when she pushed the girls very hard to get them out of the way. Then she tried to turn and run, but there was no time." |
| Bowlin learned of Ryan's heroic efforts, which were recounted by neighbor Madison Anderson, 7. The girl was sitting next to Ryan when the vehicle started rolling toward the intersection of Camino de Amigos and Corte Ramon in southeast Carlsbad. Ryan's 5-year-old daughter, Megan, was sitting on her other side. Neighbor Andrew Weston, 5, was standing in front of them. He managed to run out of the way of the Rodeo, but fell. Ryan's 2-year-old daughter, Cloe, was nearby, but not in harm's way. Madison and Andrew suffered minor injuries and were treated and released from Children's Hospital & Health Center. Megan sustained a small cut to her leg, Bowlin said. Ryan fell face down as she was run over. As she lay motionless, the first neighbor to rush to the scene turned her over and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation, though to no avail. Ryan had died on impact. Ryan was remembered by family and friends yesterday as a happy, healthy and athletic mother who was devoted to her children and husband. When Megan was born, Ryan quit teaching at Roosevelt Middle School in Vista to become a stay-at-home mom. "She was the most wonderful wife, mother, companion and person in this world," said Ryan's husband, Paul, 34, a Honeywell sales manager. "She just loved children." "The fact of the matter is that she was reading a children's Highlights magazine to our children and the neighborhood children when this accident occurred," he said. "And I know that if she were in the same situation again, she would do exactly the same thing." |