Grady Lambert just wanted to run across the country and change some lives. His run was cut short, but his mission has only just begun.
Somewhere out there, a miracle happened, and we all missed it. On that day, in that place, both details which remain a mystery, someone awoke from surgery with a new lease on life. A stranger’s skin had been grafted onto theirs, a bittersweet gift from beyond, granted by an organ donor.
When this person woke up and looked at their new skin, we have to assume their eyes were immediately drawn to their new tattoo. Inked on skin they weren’t born with, but now wear thanks to generosity of Grady Lambert, this person now forever bears a reminder from a man who sparked a movement: “Stay Gold.”
It’s something that Grady Lambert tried to live by, tried to live up to, as he made his way through this world. And after he passed on, it remains an indelible mark on anyone who hears his story.
Grady and his mom Julie’s last photo together
‘He just wanted to know adventure’
Grady Lambert grew up in Texas, the oldest of three boys. A scout from a young age, he approached life with an insatiable curiosity, exploring every speck of wilderness around his home, devouring books, movies and music, and restlessly discovering more about his world.
“I remember when he must have been about three years old, he climbed up on the counter, opened up the spice cabinet, and had every single spice on the counter, just tasting them,” his mother Julie said. “He just wanted to know adventure.”
He shared those adventures with his brothers, a trio so inseparable they insisted on sharing a room growing up. “Growing up on 20-some acres in the middle of nowhere Texas, we only had each other. So we’d go on adventures, riding bikes, smashing windows at the junkyard, swimming in ponds, building tree houses and just getting into trouble,” younger brother Lee Van said. “We all found things to do together because that’s all you really had.”
That young lust for adventure would eventually fuel an epic cross-country road trip which took Grady and two friends from Oklahoma, where the family had relocated, clear across to Seattle. The former Boy Scout saw the region’s mountains, streams and beaches and immediately fell in love, calling the Pacific Northwest his adopted home.
But family was always crucial to Grady, so it was a joy to receive his youngest brother Stone as a roommate a few years later. They would attend Portland State University together, but when Stone moved on, Grady stayed.
“He found his place. He was happy there,” Julie said. “Until COVID.”
Grady had been working as a bartender, and with the restrictions and lockdowns of the pandemic, this active young man found himself with nothing to occupy his mind. Fortunately, Grady had always kept his mind as active as his body, and that active mind quickly seized on a plan to do some good in this world.
Despite never being much of a runner before COVID, Grady Lambert decided he was going to run across the country. Along the way, he was going to stop at as many hospitals as possible to spread his exuberant joy and zest for life.
Speaking on The Get Wild Podcast, Grady explained to host Kelsey Harrison the reasoning behind this run. “I was hearing all these amazing stories, both heartbreaking and heartwarming, of what nurses and doctors were dealing with every day on the front line,” he said. “And somewhere in the midst of all of that, I just had this insane idea of, ‘What if somebody did something to just recognize the enormity of what they’ve done?’”
Start Day at Cannon Beach
4,482 miles
Summarizing the mission statement of his run from Cannon Beach Oregon to Hilton Head Island, Grady wrote the following on his Instagram:
“Over the course of the last few years, I’ve witnessed a significant decline in compassion for our fellow man and the weakening of the family unit. Both of which have been perpetuated by the COVID pandemic. Due to this, I am inspired to help. I am running across America to support those impacted by the pandemic. Until late 2022, I will continue the process of running to Hilton Head, South Carolina. A total of 4,482 miles. It is my mission to promote compassion for one another, our environment, and our country.”
Hilton Head Island may seem like an arbitrary end point, but this island was actually dear to Grady’s heart. In fact, one of the first people he sought for advice was his father’s cousin, Jim Buser. Cut from the same outdoor adventurer cloth, Buser is the longtime owner of Sports Addiction, Old Town Bike Barn and Hilton Head by Boat.
“He approached me, and honestly I thought this was a crazy endeavor. He’d never really been running before,” Buser said. “He asked me, ‘How much should I run a week to get ready for this?’ I told him 100 miles, but he’d been doing 10-12. He literally ran himself into shape.”
Still, his parents weren’t surprised at all by Grady’s decision. And when he took off from Cannon Beach, they were there to drive his car back for him. He’d sold everything else in preparation for the trip. “The hardest thing for him to part with was his library,” Julie said.
The view from the road
When Grady Lambert hit the road from Cannon Beach, with all his worldly possessions packed into a running stroller, he wasn’t alone for long. Not only was he constantly in touch with his family, but he found himself amassing followers on Instagram as he catalogued his journey. Each post would document something that had fascinated the young vagabond, be it a lonely house Grady determined was haunted (to which he added the hashtag #shirleyjackson, as a proud bookworm), or a friendly face who gifted him a bowl of soup.
A typical campsite – too hot for a tent.
In post after post, he documented the trip down through the winding hills of the Pacific Northwest, into the scratchy scrubland of California and across the American Southwest. Each snapshot was a story of a young man spending a little time with the road, sleeping on tarps when the desert made a tent too hot, spreading joy at hospitals and experiencing the joy and wonder of simply living in the moment.
His family also made regular stops to meet him along the way, following his adventures on GPS. His father Mark Lambert drove eight hours to Albuquerque, New Mexico to help Grady fix a flat tire on his stroller. He also surprised him with a visit in Gallup, Texas. “We had a great reunion,” Mark said. “That was some really, really good quality time with him. We took some great pictures before we parted, and it was great memory. I was really glad I made that trip.”
When Julie made her own trip out, she and her son were able to enjoy some deep conversations. “He kept saying, ‘It’s just lonely. I’m lonely out here,’… but he was thankful,” Julie said. “I’m 92 percent sure that if he knew he was going to die while he was doing this, he would have done it anyway.”
Staying gold
On August 28, 2022, Grady Lambert was struck by a car on a lonely stretch of Texas highway outside Amarillo. His parents knew before the call even came that something was happening, watching their son’s dot on the GPS moving 90 mph as an ambulance took him to the hospital. When they received the devastating news, they drove to see their son as quickly as they could.
“Once I got into the room, there was so much … it wasn’t chaos, but the nurses wouldn’t talk to us. Reading the room, you could tell the stress they were under trying to keep him stabilized,” Julie said. The extent of his injuries was far too severe to be treated. His temperature rose to 106 degrees. Doctors had to remove part of his brain. It was time for difficult conversations. “Fortunately, there was no decision for us to make. We were just passing the decision on,” Julie said.
The decision, which Julie and Mark shared with Grady’s followers, was to allow doctors to harvest Grady’s body as one last act of selflessness. A proud organ donor, he had been fortunate enough to be among the handful of people who arrive at the hospital in a condition where they can do the most good for others. He was a giver until the end.
And while they waited for the doctors to come, his parents said their goodbyes. “The neurologists and doctors told us that even with a brain injury like that, the very last sense that a person loses is their sense of hearing,” Mark said. “So, everybody took advantage of that. We read all the cards and talked to him because we hoped he could hear us.”
Along with cards, they read some of the outpouring of support from social media. People Grady had encountered on the road shared stories of conversations they’d had. Hospitals he’d visited shared their love for Grady. Some followers began showing off their own memorials, “Stay Gold” tattoos they’d adopted in his honor.
“The most unique one, I think, was his fifth grade teacher, who happily sports her own,” Julie said.
Run for Grady
Grady’s death did not stop him from giving the gift of life to as many people as he could. It also didn’t stop his quest to reach Hilton Head Island.
“As tragic as that was, the mindset of Mark and Julie spun that into a positive thing,” Buser said. “Then Julie told me that she’d talked to Grady just a week before and he’d said, ‘If something happens, I just want this finished.’”
Buser swung into action, calling his friends from all over the island, from Hilton Head Running Company and Broad Creek Marina to Creative Designs and Captain Woody’s. What they were able to create was the “Grady’s 5K “Run for Grady – Finish This!” which will end at Coligny Beach June 10, but start where Grady left off in Amarillo.
“In my brain, I wanted to do it for Mark and Julie. I’m doing it partly for Grady, but also for the family,” Buser said. “They’re all coming.”
And you can join them for Grady’s 5K “Run for Grady – Finish This!” when it hits the island June 10. Consisting of a 5K, a 1-mile walk of remembrance finishing Grady’s run, and a Grady-Fest after-party at Captain Woody’s, it will be a daylong celebration of a young man who lost his life trying to remind us all to stay gold.
Listen Along with Grady. After he passed, friends compiled some of Grady’s favorite music from the road into the Spotify playlist “2,364 Miles.” You can listen here:open.spotify.com/playlist/3tPAE2rXUSYceDg2RZvmcL?si=0f3e7f27df2b4579
Sign up at runsignup.com/Race/SC/HiltonHeadIsland/Gradys5K.
