By Jacob Taylor
The Department of Biomedical Engineering helped inspire one of their graduate students, Christophe Bradley Smith, to run his first marathon.

BME Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director Prasanna Krishnamurthy, Ph.D., personally sponsored Smith’s run and gave him the opportunity to take part in the Mercedes Marathon. Smith is a Ph.D. student in the BME program and a member of the BME Graduate Student Body (BMEGS).

Smith says he was interested in running a relay race in the Mercedes Marathon weekend of events, held February 11-12, to get to know other BME graduate students. When no other students were able to make it, Smith accepted the offer to run on his own in the full marathon.

“I knew it would be difficult and I had not properly trained for it, but I did not want to turn down a chance to accomplish something new and challenging,” Smith said.

After reviewing the route and noting it had few hills and opportunities to stop if needed, he decided to go through with the full marathon. Despite not having ever run more than 10 miles in his life, Smith completed the full race. He described the feeling of crossing the finish line as a mixture of relief and accomplishment, saying, “I was glad it was over, but I was proud that I had managed to push myself so far without giving up or hurting myself.”

“I want to thank UAB for giving me the opportunity to push myself and do something I never thought I could.”