Running and Skating
Before I say anything else, I must give attention and congratulations to Amy Palmeiro-Winters, the recipient of the AAU Sullivan Award, presented to the nation’s Amateur Athlete of the Year. For those of you not familiar with Amy, she is a fellow below knee amputee and patient of A Step Ahead Prosthetics, in Hicksville, NY, on Long Island.
Last New Years Eve/Day, she ran 130.04 miles in a “how far can you run in 24 hours” race and beat the nearest competitor—the nearest able-bodied competitor, male or female—by 15 miles! This qualified her for the 24-Hour World Championships, to be contested in France sometime in May, as part of Team USA! YEAH AMY!!! Read all about her at www.seeamyrun.com.
Earlier today, I completed something a bit more mainstream. The Boston Marathon. I did, however, run six miles beforehand and squeezed in a difficult extra mile after crossing the finish line. I was staying with a friend 1.4 miles from said finish line and had a plane to catch (on which I now type).
The extra miles and the 26.2 in between were all part of my own ultramarathon ambitions. You might have read about my commitment to run the 56-mile Comrades Marathon on May 30 in South Africa. Today’s race doubled as both a training day my official qualifier for next month’s run. I needed only finish under five hours—a goal I’d have bet large money on. What I was truly hoping for was to get in under four hours, so my 3:58:47—my slowest Boston finish of five—was warmly welcomed.
I’ve preached the following outlook on many stages in many cities over the years: I look forward to life’s adversity’s because nearly each and every one brings me a gift. Today’s challenge began last night when my host, Christine—one of my wife Sharon’s best friends who happens to inhabit 10th floor apartment with a killer view overlooking the River Charles!—injured her lower back at her nephew’s birthday party…in the bouncy house! She shuffled through the door at 8PM in miserable pain and this morning, about the time she was to drive me to the start, she nearly passed out, right after she nearly vomited… Suffice to say I had to find another way to Hopkinton.
Her apartment isn’t too far from where the buses were loading up adjacent Boston Common and I had 30 minutes to spare, so jumped in a cab and put myself in line with thousands of other runners. Some say this is a quintessential part of the Boston Marathon experience and one I had yet to partake in. That was the first silver lining. The second was when the guy sitting next to me on the bus offered to sponsor a World Vision child in Africa in support of our team’s mission with the running of Comrades Marathon! My heart goes out to Christine—who was the first person to support me by sponsoring a child—and her suffering, but because of this challenge, which barely splashed on to me, a child and his or her community will have a better life. Some things are just meant to be.
(Please visit www.theultimatecause.org and sponsor a child. You’ll be glad you did.)
That was today’s excitement. Last week’s excitement went down in DC where I met Lord Stanley’s Cup! The vast majority of you just said “Cool!” To those of you who just said “What’s that?” it’s the coolest trophy in sports: the 100-plus year old championship trophy of the National Hockey League. It was in DC to celebrate the National Disabled Hockey Festival. The weekend was filled with hockey players who don’t have all their “normal” parts. I played with the National Amputee Team. There were also deaf players, players with intellectual disabilities (special hockey), and sled hockey players. These guys and gals are mostly double amputees, above knee amps or paraplegics. The sleds are essentially seats set low to the ice, mounted on skate blades. They propel themselves across the ice with modified sticks that are shorter, have a more obtuse angle at the blade, and have spikes at the butt-end to push with. The US Team just won the gold medal at the Vancouver Paralympics!
I hadn’t played with the national team since the World Championships in Prague, 2004. The team’s president and co-founder, Dr. Dave Crandell, phoned me several weeks ago asking if I’d like to return to the squad for the weekend in DC—the team needs more “leg guys”. (In amputee hockey, teams are allowed only so many arm amputees—typically below elbow—on the ice at one time to maintain a fair balance of skating ability, and Team USA is loaded up with “arm guys.”) With Jack and Luke and an extremely hardworking-in-a-stressful-job pregnant wife (I love you Sharon!!!!), I limit my travel to business, i.e., money-making, and so declined the offer. Then he held out the carrot …
President Barrack Obama had personally requested a meeting with the team! How could I pass up a chance to meet the President of the United States!? Regardless of what side of the aisle you sit, it’s an extreme honor.
Of course, I said yes.
As of late, I’ve been playing drop-in hockey once a week, then bumped it up to twice in preparation for the trip. This cut into some of my mid-week training runs for Comrades, but I still stuck to my two-hour Saturday runs, followed by four to five hour Sunday runs.
Ever so sadly, with the White House visit schedule changing constantly in the waning hours or trip, we were granted an phenomenal tour of the White House, but the President had to bail; apparently signing nuclear disarmament treaties in Europe is more important than shaking the left hands of hockey players who have no rights.
