Six-time shuttle astronaut Musgrave will speak at marathon

Franklin Story Musgrave is a trauma surgeon, a pilot, a parachutist, an author, a poet, a mathematician, a multimedia producer, a professor of design, a landscape architect, a lecturer, an electrician, a mechanic and a prior U.S. Marine.

An astronaut for more than 30 years, he flew into space six times and conducted the first extravehicular activity from the space shuttle. He is “the man who repaired the Hubble telescope.”

He will be the keynote speaker at the pre-race dinner of the 2015 Space Coast Marathon and Half Marathon Nov. 28 at the Radisson Resort at the Port, Cape Canaveral. He also will appear earlier Nov. 28 at the annual Health & Fitness Exposition, also at the Radisson.

“We always try to think of people who would be especially cool as speakers for our pre-race dinner, and often they are running experts like Bart Yasso . . . but they also have been astronauts like Mike McCulley, a local resident who comes to the race every year. Then Erin (Schuck, of Running Zone) suggested we reach out to Story Musgrave, who now lives in Orlando, and he got back to us quickly,” said Laura Sanchez, events manager for the Running Zone Foundation, which organizes the annual event.

Sanchez said having Musgrave, a father of seven who holds six graduate degrees and 20 honorary doctorates, would be especially appropriate because, in addition to his long list of other accomplishments, he is the only astronaut to have flown on each of the country’s five orbiters.

That is of special interest at the space-themed Space Coast Marathon and Half Marathon, which introduced its space shuttle-themed “Big Bang Series” medals for three- (“Milky Way”) and five-year (“Intergalactic”) runners in those races from 2013 through 2017. Participants in each of the series races receive colorful medals modeled after each of the five shuttles: Columbia (2013), Challenger (2014), Discovery (2015), Endeavour (2016) and Atlantis (2017).

“Because space is so important to us, we think it is wonderful that he will be able to speak about his experiences,” Sanchez said. “We think he’ll speak in general about overcoming challenges and ‘recreating yourself.’”

She added that the formal theme for Musgrave’s address is expected to be “Designing a Life for Yourself, One Little Step at a Time.”

“We are just so excited to have him,” Sanchez said. “We could not ask for a more interesting speaker.”

The Space Coast Marathon and Half Marathon pre-race dinner will follow the 2015 Health& Fitness Exposition, which will take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov 28 at the Radisson Resort at the Port, 8701 Astronaut Blvd., Cape Canaveral. For more information, go to spacecoastmarathon.com