ChristianMusicDaily

Country supergroup Diamond Rio members Jimmy Olander and Marty Roe recently completed the Country Music 1/2 Marathon along with 150 members of Team Rio, the band’s 1/2 and full marathon group that ran/walked for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Middle Tennessee on Saturday, April 26. Arby's Presents Team Rio 2008 raised over $116,000.00 for Big Brothers Big Sisters, the premiere mentoring agency in Middle Tennessee and Diamond Rio's long-time charity.

Olander and Roe both finished the race in 2:20:37 and assisted a fellow runner in the process. “You could see the finish line from where we were at on the bridge,” says Olander of the incident. “I was about 30 or 40 feet in front of Marty and our commitment for this 1/2 was that we were going to cross the finish line together.  I turn around and see he's trying to help steady this girl... she looked like she was going down. Marty and I each took a side to hold her up and walked with her. We were hoping to help her get across the finish line, but she was in bad shape. Security guys on bikes were able to go and get help for her. We hung with her until the meds were able to show up.”

Later that day, the band was spared from a near disaster during the band's last song at a private show that evening in Tempe, Arizona.  An entire lighting truss fell on stage and injured Diamond Rio keyboard player Dan Truman as well as the group’s production manager. “There were a couple of light gusts of wind and then a strong gust followed by the truss falling on stage. I was trying to judge whether I needed to move forward or backwards since it was coming right towards me. I ended up moving into my keyboard and leaning over it so it missed my head and hit my lower back,” shares Truman. “I was fortunate to walk away with just bruising and minor cuts.”  Olander says, “What happened on stage... the catastrophe that could have happened and did not was amazing.”