Saskatoon couple leave addictions in the past as they run toward a world record

Tarrant Cross Child hit rock bottom in the spring of 2014.

He was a father, a husband, an accomplished runner and a proud member of the Blackfoot tribe. But slowly, Cross Child’s life was being torn apart by his alcohol addiction.

Running was an important part of his life from elementary school through college. But over the years, as the Alcohol started to creep in, his desire to run and compete started to evaporate.

“I ran a lot when I was young and through my addiction I didn’t run. I was putting the bottle before everything. It was alcohol before my wife, alcohol before my kids, alcohol before work. Alcohol was my life,” he said about the addiction that eventually led to an attempt to take his own life.

“It happened during Easter in 2014. My daughter made the comment ‘this is the worst Easter ever,’ because I was just in the hospital with my failed suicide attempt and I was going in to get help and my wife said, ‘You know what? This might be bad but it could be the best Easter when we look back knowing that this is when dad reached out for help and this time he meant it.’”

That prophetic prediction by Celeste, Tarrant’s wife of nearly 20 years, came at a time when even she was skeptical about her own ability to endure her husband’s addiction for much longer, let alone his ability to overcome it.

During that time of uncertainty, not knowing how much longer she could hang on to the hope that the man she married would ever return, she turned to her faith to help her through it.

“I did feel like I had given up. I thought I can’t even picture him getting better anymore because that sober, younger Tarrant, that vision. I had almost forgotten that this person had taken over for so long,” said Celeste.

“Just shortly before he tried to commit suicide I had totally given up, like this is not going to go anywhere, and then he did that and right before I realized that I can’t change him, I can’t take care of him, I’m not in charge of his decisions. I said God he is in your hands only you can fix him because I can’t. Shortly after that miracles happened and he decided to make a change for the better.”

Tarrant has been sober now for 6 years. He has ran 4 marathon’s in that time. Now he and Celeste have their sights set on breaking the aggregate marathon world record during the Saskatchewan Marathon on May 31 in Saskatoon.

That means each of them will run their own half marathon and the times will be added together for a combined marathon time.

The current world record is just over three hours and nine minutes, a time that the two are confident they can beat if everything goes smoothly leading up to the race.

“We’ll see if it’s going to be raining, if it’s going to be cool. Everything plays into the race-day logistics but in the meantime we’ll just keep training, making sure I sleep well, making sure I eat the right food, staying away from cheeseburgers. My weak spot is cheeseburgers,” Tarrant joked.

“So we are in there but it’s going to be tough. We can do it and achieve it, but like I said we gotta bring it on game day and put everything into it.”

After Tarrant decided to get help it took him a long time to get back to being able to run marathons again. He started by setting small goals for himself, like just running around the block.

“After every week and every month that goes by, pretty soon I’m able to run a bit further and further and at the same time my desire to want to drink or feel like I need to drink is diminishing and pretty soon it vanished,” he said.

Through his healing process, it didn’t take long before the two most important aspects of his recovery began to merge into one.

“Running is a huge part of it, but but my faith is even a way bigger part that keeps me going. A lot of long runs, I call them my prayer runs. I’m getting ideas, I’m getting insight and good time of reflection while I’m running,” he said.

“I believe God gave me a gift to run, and if I use that gift just for myself I think it is very selfish. I have personal goals which is good but it’s better if I share that gift with other people.”

So he does just that.

Tarrant and his partners from New Balance and Brainsport travel to communities with at-risk youth where he shares his story and provides a message of hope to anyone who might be heading down the same path he once was.

And to symbolize the 180-degree turnaround his life has taken, while still acknowledging his faith’s role in his recovery, Tarrant named this program Child of the Cross Ministries.

“So I’m not going out there and handing out bibles or anything, but I’m going out there sharing my story, my testimony, my account of what had happened,” said Tarrant.

“You know, I’ve never been shy about my faith. People know, and I feel if I don’t tell them that part, I’m robbing them of the very story, the source, of what made this love story, this hope story, all happen.”

Despite all of Tarrant’s successes, all of the positives in his life right now and the amazing distance he has come in the last six years, the thing Celeste treasures the most is one of the most simple and ordinary things in their life – seeing her husband go out for a run.

“When I met him, running was like number one, he was this really fast guy and slowly I saw him run less and less, drink more and more,” she said.

“So now every time when I still see him to go for a run, I get excited because I know it is so healthy for us as a family. I think it’s very important for mental health to stay active and you need to try and take care of your physical and mental health, and running was really helpful with that.”