Ashland hospital pharmacist and Kharma’s father: 100 miles ‘pales in comparison to what she went through’

By Sydney Seymour, Ashland.news 

“My daughter suffered for 21 days in the hospital. I can suffer for 30 hours in the wilderness, running in her memory.”

That’s what Tim Smith, a pharmacist at Asante Ashland Community Hospital, says about his plan to run 100 miles through the Siskiyous six years after the passing of 11-year-old Kharma Smith in 2019 and days before what would have been her 18th birthday, Sept. 28.

Besides honoring her life, Tim also wants to return a favor. His family was able to stay cost-free at the Oregon Health & Science University Ronald McDonald House during Kharma’s hospitalization. Now, he’ll run to raise funds for The Family House in Grants Pass, a local version of the Ronald McDonald House, so other families can, in his words, “remain close to their loved ones during some of the hardest moments of their lives.”

The 46-year-old Grants Pass resident is set to run 100 miles in the Pine to Palm 100 Mile Endurance Run (P2P100) race starting 6 a.m Saturday, Sept. 13, in Williams, and finish by noon Sunday, Sept. 14, in Ashland’s Lithia Park by Enders Memorial Shelter. In those 30 hours, four fewer than the official cut-off time for runners to finish, he will run day and night, climbing 20,000 feet in elevation.

In his effort to give back locally, all proceeds from Tim’s run — donors can pick how much per mile they’d like to donate — will go to The Family House. Funds are needed to make real completed plans to double the size of the facility so it can accommodate more families of those receiving care, with improvements including an updated kitchen, laundry facilities, community spaces and RV spots with full hookups, according to its fundraising page.

Kharma’s illness

In the summer of 2019, just seven days after their “first big family trip” — a road trip through Yosemite, Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks — Kharma developed a fever and elevated heart rate. She had already experienced three weeks of cough, left rib pain and shortness of breath. 

X-rays revealed masses in her lungs. She was rushed by life-flight to OHSU’s Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland. 

Doctors diagnosed her with NUT carcinoma, a rare, aggressive form of cancer. Tim describes it as the “unicorn of cancer.” 

“And I had the unicorn of a daughter,” he said. “There’s no one like Kharma.”

She was an “old soul” who took care of everybody, Tim said. “She was such a great big sister, not just to her own family.”

At karate lessons with her mom, Erynn, Kharma stood up for the other kids when they got bullied. “She was just badass,” Tim said. “The thing that I miss most is her being the big sister.” 

Kharma had just finished fifth grade and was soon to start middle school. She loved robotics, making art, cooking with her mom and watching sports with her dad.

She would’ve been a high school senior this year, Tim said, “showing the ropes” to her brother, Avery Smith, now 14, who is a high school freshman, and making memories with her youngest brother, Tennin Smith, now 10. 

While it may have given her a few more months, Kharma knew she didn’t want to put her body through chemotherapy, especially after she went into cardiac arrest during a biopsy. 

After 21 days in the hospital, Kharma, at 11 years and 11 months old, passed away on Aug. 21, 2019. 

“What benefited us the most, and it’s the saddest part, is that my daughter got to die in our arms,” Tim said. 

He credited his and Erynn’s ability to be with Kharma to the Ronald McDonald House.

“I don’t know how I would be if I was at … some crap, cheap hotel and I got a phone call,” he said. “I will bend over backwards for the Ronald McDonald House and still donate myself to them all the time.” 

‘Running with Kharma’ 

A cross-county runner in high school, Tim returned to long-distance running to hold onto his daughter’s memory and cope with his grief. 

“When I’m running, I might be in pain and my muscles hurt but it pales in comparison to what she went through,” he said. “It hurts, but I’m alive.” 

Within two years of Kharma’s passing, he ran a half-marathon (13.1 miles) at a different national park nearly every two weeks. “National parks have a special meaning,” Tim said, recalling the last family trip with Kharma.

When he signed up for the 100-mile race, he thought he wouldn’t be able to finish as a “newbie” ultrarunner with only three months to train. Known as P2P100 by the ultramarathon community, this grueling endurance race “is one of the toughest races in America. Only about 40% of people finish,” Tim said.

But as soon as he had the idea to fundraise for Kharma, he said he realized, “I’m gonna finish the damn race. There’s no doubt in my mind.”

This year’s 13th annual P2P100 will be his last chance to do so. Race founder Hal Koerner, a famed ultramarathoner and owner of the Rogue Valley Runners store in Ashland, has announced it will be the last P2P100. The first was held in 2010; no race was held in 2017 (smoke), 2020 and 2021 (pandemic).

Training for 100 miles 

Tim started ultrarunning this May. The longest ultramarathon he has completed is only about 34 miles. To train for 100 miles, Tim is running 50 miles a week, increasing his distance by 10% each week. To prepare for the 20,000 feet in elevation gain, he trains on Ashland’s steeper trails. 

“I literally will leave work and drive to Lithia Park and start running the trails up there,” he said. “Last week I got lost up in the mountains. I came down in a different spot.” 

In anticipation of the estimated 10 hours of running through darkness, once the kids are in bed Tim trains from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m.

“Running at 2 o’clock in the morning is a lot different than running at 2 o’clock in the afternoon,” he said. “In the wilderness, there might not be anybody around for hours. This will be an adventure. So bring it on, nighttime Siskiyous.” 

Tim will be running the trail alone, but not without a crew, a team that meets the runner from aid station to aid station to provide support. He recruited his 80-year-old dad — also his former high school cross-country coach — to drive their Jeep through the Siskiyou roads. His 10-year-old, Tennin, will keep his grandpa awake.  

“It means the world that my crazy dad is the only one willing to step up for this. He’s willing to potentially put himself in harm’s way to support his kid,” he said. 

While Tim might quit at 2 a.m. if he was running 100 miles for himself, he said, “I’m not going to quit running for Kharma and raising funds for The Family House. I don’t care how tough it’s going to be, I will be at Lithia Park by 4 o’clock on Sunday,” the cut-off time for runners to complete the course. 

Calling on the community to keep Kharma’s legacy alive 

Looking forward, Tim plans to choose a “crazy” race in the U.S. to run in every year in Kharma’s name. This time next year he’ll run the Bigfoot 200 — a 107-hour, 200-mile race with 54,000 feet of elevation gain through the Cascade Mountains —  for the second annual Running with Kharma fundraiser.

Tim hopes that telling his daughter’s story will touch other people, maybe inspire them to do something “crazy, good, and badass too,” he said. “Even after the race is finished, I don’t want the story to end,” encouraging people to donate after the race too. 

“I do believe good things happen to good people. That’s why she was named Kharma,” he said. 

Spreading the word through flyers, social media and word of mouth, Tim calls on the Ashland, Grants Pass, and other Rogue Valley communities to donate and help him “keep Kharma’s legacy alive — 1 mile at a time.” 

Sept. 16: This story has been corrected to reflect that Tim Smith needed to finish the Pine to Palms Endurance 100 Mike Endurance Run in 30 hours — not 34 — as was previously reported.

Email Ashland.news Snowden reporting intern Sydney Seymour at [email protected].