You could have heard a pin drop in the Smith Center, despite the nearly 500 students, faculty, parents, and guests who came to hear Todd Crandell’s story. It was Crandell’s third time telling his story this Tuesday. He began the day speaking to inmates at a New Hampshire state prison, moved on to a public high school, and ended the day at Brewster Academy, where he was honored to be, he said.

Crandell assured the students that he was not there to lecture, but to share all the good that has come into his life since he stopped doing drugs. But, and he would repeat this message many times throughout the evening, he would not be the person he is today and he would not be standing in front of them, if he hadn’t experienced the sheer misery of drugging and drinking. “I was made to share my experiences and make a difference. I was meant to do this.”

Crandell unabashedly began telling his story, a story that began when he was just three-years-old and his drug-addicted mother took her own life, leaving a huge void in young Crandell’s life. In a sense, though, his story began at birth with a predisposed genetic wiring to the horrors of addiction, he explained.

Eventually, as Crandell got older the pain of losing his mother became a little lighter to bear and his self-doubt waned, especially after discovering happiness through sports. “I found athletics as a way to make me feel better.” He focused on hockey and became the best high school goalie in his home state of Ohio and was on his way to a professional hockey career, he said.

While making a name for himself on the ice, however, Crandell was beginning to battle demons off the ice. The battle began not long after attending a party in the eighth grade. Curiosity, not peer pressure, led him to his first few sips of beer at the party, he said. A few months later, as a freshman, he discovered whiskey, then marijuana, Quaaludes, and eventually other substances. By senior year, he tried cocaine. His grades started slipping and his core group of friends began disassociating with him because they didn’t like the choices he was making. He spent his weekends drugged out. Money earned working part-time for his father helped supply his habit. Midway through his senior year, he was expelled from school for snorting cocaine on the school bus.

After learning that his son had been expelled from school for using cocaine, Crandell’s father appeared in his bedroom, tears streaming down his face, and, according to Crandell, told him it was the worst day of his life since Crandell’s mother had died. The older Crandell then kicked his son out of the family home, which he had shared with his father, stepmother, and stepbrothe.

“Girlfriends, hockey, school, nothing meant anything to me except finding cocaine,” Crandell said. “Life as I knew it was unraveling pretty quickly.”

A few months later he was allowed to move back home on condition that he finish high school, which he did. He then enrolled at the University of Toledo but soon found himself unable to focus on studying or hold down a job because his life was consumed with drinking and drugging.

One day he came home in a rage and physically beat his father and stepmother. For a second time, he was kicked out of the family home, but this time he headed to Florida where he was sure everything would be good, that his problems would somehow go away, he said. After living out of his car, sleeping on the beaches, and spending a Christmas day drinking vodka alone on the beach, he begged his father to allow him to come home. The older Crandell would not allow his son to move back into the family home but he did allow him to rent an apartment above one of his businesses.

At this point in his life, Crandell described himself as physically, spiritually, emotionally, and financially exhausted. His life was complete mayhem and he knew it. “I hated it but I couldn’t figure out how to get out of it.” He recalled at least two times when he had a gun to his mouth but admitted suicide wasn’t really what he wanted. “I didn’t really want to die. I really wanted to figure out a way to live.”

“Two sips of beer led me to 13 years of complete and utter chaos,” Crandell said, referring back to the choices he had made in eighth grade.

The drinking and drugging continued for a few more years until one day – April 15, 1993 (a date now tattooed on his leg) – when he received his third DUI (driving under the influence) violation. He had pulled into a service station because he had a flat tire. After an exchange with the garage attendant, Crandell began urinating on the office desk. The police were called, and he was arrested with a blood alcohol level of .36.

“That for me was my wake-up call.”

On that day, Crandell quit drinking and using other drugs; he quit cold turkey. He began attending Alcoholics Anonymous and other support groups. He received counseling, read books on addiction and recovery, and began setting goals. “I wanted more of what life had to offer.”

During these early months and years of sobriety, Crandell returned to college and earned a business degree. After college, he was hired as a pharmaceutical sales representative, selling legal drugs to doctors, he explained, noting the irony. He met the woman who would become his wife, bought a house, and eventually started a family, which now includes four young children.

During this time, Crandell also decided to do something that many people might consider crazy; as a way to take his negative addiction and put it into something positive, he started training for an Ironman event. An Ironman race consists of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike, and a 26.2-mile run, all of which must be completed within 17 hours.

“It was one of the best highs I’ve ever had in my life,” he said of completing that first Ironman in 1999.

After completing the Ironman a newspaper featured a story on the former addict turned Ironman, which prompted numerous phone calls from people who knew of his past addictions and who wanted to congratulate him. That encouragement is what fueled Crandell’s desire to help others recover from drug addictions through racing, he explained.

With a new found high in sports, Crandell founded Racing for Recovery, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to prevent all forms of substance abuse and to provide positive alternatives for those currently battling addictions by encouraging a lifestyle of fitness and health through 5K run/walk events across the nation.

“Racing for Recovery works for a lot of people.” Crandell said. Just as people travel different paths to becoming an addict, they also travel different paths to find their way out of addiction, he explained. Racing for Recovery takes a holistic approach to assistance and recovery by encouraging a lifestyle of fitness and health.

In his own race for recovery, Crandell has now completed 13 Ironman events, and in April 2008 will compete in Ironman China. “I’m going to do every one in the world.”

After sharing his story, Crandell opened the floor for questions, and the students kept them coming, asking great questions about his experiences and transformation, including what his favorite part of sobriety is … “My favorite part of sobriety is my kids and my family and second is this. I love being here at 8:13 at night doing this.”

Crandell is the subject of the 2003 film, “Addict: Racing for Recovery – The Todd Crandell Story,” which is told by his closest relatives, friends, former high school coach, and Crandell himself. He also is the author, along with John Hanc, of the 2006 book Racing for Recovery: From Addict to Ironman. To learn more about Crandell or his organization, visit Racing For Recovery.