The power of children’s dreams keeps a marathoner on the run.

When chronic fatigue sets in and muscles start to ache, marathon runners may get to a place where their bodies cry out, “Give up, it’s not worth it!” But 26-year-old Craig Johnson of Redondo Beach, who has run in 35 marathons, says he’s found something that keeps him going to the finish line.

He ties the power of dreams to his running shoes. Not his dreams, but the dreams of children. Like the dreams of a terminally ill child who wants to visit Disneyland or meet a famous sports hero, or talk to the President about building a better world.

But these and other young dreams can’t come true without money to pay the expenses. So early last year, Johnson went to the Starlight Foundation, a Santa Monica-based charity that raises money for chronically and terminally ill children, and offered his “15-10 Marathon Challenge.”

He would run in 15 marathons in 10 months, asking people along the way to pledge money to the foundation. Starlight spokeswoman Susan Wadell said the effort brought in nearly $1,300.

Johnson didn’t want to stop with one good deed. “I thought there must be many other runners who would be turned on to the idea,” he said. “So I added the ‘Dream Team’ concept--a lot of people getting this extra incentive, knowing that they’re running not just for themselves, but for kids who are sick or have other troubles.”

“If you’re running not just for yourself . . . you’ve got all it takes to keep you going through the hard places,” Johnson said.

There’s nothing new in raising money by running, riding bikes, sitting on flagpoles and other feats of bravery or athletic endurance. But Johnson says such efforts need to be organized to get them started and keep them going.

To provide the organization, Johnson has formed the nonprofit ARK (Athletes Running for Kids) Foundation. He is starting with the support of Starlight and other children’s charities and then will gradually expand into a nationwide organization.

“So far, it’s a one-man band,” said Johnson, who works as a parts clerk at Hughes Aircraft in El Segundo. “Getting this thing organized is a lot harder than training for a marathon. But I know it can be done.”

Athletes and would-be runners who join his Dream Team don’t need any special talents, he says. “I’m nobody special,” he said. “I’m just your average Joe. If I can run in a marathon, or any other kind of race, then anybody can do it.”

Johnson says he started jogging to take off excess weight gained from snacking too much at a Mrs. Fields Cookies store, where he worked to help pay his way through UCLA. After a few months of running a couple of miles a day, he was challenged by a friend to enter the next Los Angeles Marathon.

That gave him marathon fever, and in the next four years he participated in events all over the country. He says he’s racked up about $6,000 in out-of-pocket expenses for air fare, hotels and Dream Team costs, like printing flyers and postage.

Johnson says he doesn’t know where he got his drive to help others, but he thinks one source may have been his reaction to family tragedies when he was growing up in Wisconsin. A brother drowned when he was 6 and his mother died in a traffic accident when he was 12.

“Their deaths had a tremendous impact on me,” he said. “I thought about it for years, and the only thing I could come up with is the idea that every day must be important. For as long as we’re alive, we have to try each day to make a difference.”

For Johnson, making a difference means helping kids by running in marathons with his Dream Team. For anyone interested in joining, Johnson’s telephone number is 318-5629.