Back to the Mountain

While I was training for my first attempt on the Coast to Coast Mountain Run a friend asked me if I had heard of a group called Achilles. Achilles was founded in the early 1980’s by Dick Traum an above the knee amputee who became the first amputee to complete the New York City Marathon (that was in 1976).

Achilles was formed out of his experience to give people with disabilities an opportunity to compete in main stream events.

My only interest in contacting Achilles was about training for the Coast to Coast and I thought that given Achilles worked with people with disability perhaps there could be some training tips I could pick up by getting in touch with them. I managed to track down Peter Loft the then chairman of Achilles and a driving force behind Achilles International in New Zealand. It so happened that Peter was due to be in Wellington for a meeting in a couple of weeks and so we arranged to meet for a coffee and a chat.

Peter and I had barely shaken hands and before there was any talk of training he told me that Achilles were going to be launching a new chapter in Wellington and invited me to join. I hesitated slightly but said ok wondering how as someone who couldn’t run I could get involved in a running group.

Then Peter jumped right in with

“Great, now that you’re joining Achilles, why don’t you come next year with us and do the New York Marathon”. We still hadn’t discussed training.

All I had been thinking about for months was taking on the Coast to Coast Mountain Run and suddenly I was being asked to join a running group and do a 42k marathon.

My first thoughts were I’m not a runner, how was I going to be able to complete that kind of distance, 42k! but found myself pushing aside the objections in my head and saying

“Yes, ok lets do it”

Peter has a no nonsense way of speaking to you and looks you directly in the eye, once I had agreed to go he then said to me.

“You probably need to know that I have been taking athletes to New York for 20 years and not one of my athletes has ever failed to finish” the way he said it, it sounded non-negotiable.

“Actually” Peter went on “You can leave the Marathon on three conditions, a body bag, in an ambulance or you make it over the line its your choice”.

At this point I was starting to feel a bit of pressure, that this guy was a bit crazy and felt I needed to clarify something that might let me off the hook.

“Peter this sounds great (apart from the body bag bit) but there’s one problem with all of this, I can’t run”. Peter didn’t hesitate, he just held me with his steely gaze and said

“Why cant you run”?

I suddenly had one of those moments like in a movie and all my thoughts tumbled back to being 16, laying in a hospital bed half paralysed from my brain bleed, being told I would never run again, never even thinking about running, never even attempting what seemed impossible. Peters voice snapped me back into our conversation.

“Well can you move and can you keep moving”?

“Yes” I replied

“Great” said Peter with a knowing smile “Come to New York and do the marathon” he was handing me if not a reason to run at least a reason to try.

I was struck by how being told I would never run again never had me consider even thinking about running, how often in our lives are we limited by messages we are told by others or the messages we tell ourselves.

So after failing to complete the Mountain Run in Coast to Coast 2015  it was back into training only this time it was not off road into the hills but rather around the streets and suburbs of Lower Hutt to get prepared for the 42k’s in the 5 boroughs of New York with its start from Staten Island to the finish at Central Park that is the New York City Marathon.

Cigna is the primary sponsor of Achilles in New Zealand and for the 2015 New York Marathon I was teamed up with Lance Walker CEO of Cigna in New Zealand. All Achilles athletes are paired with a guide who is there to support, assist and generally look after the athlete, with over 50,000 other runners on the course in New York its a practical way to guide, support and help athletes get through to the finish.

Through our regular training sessions Lance and I quickly became friends and despite Lances busy schedule we began to meet up for lunchtime trainings and weekend sessions along with other Achilles athletes and guides. When Peter said he would like to come with Lance and I on the marathon I was thrilled, the man who had handed me the opportunity of a life time would be there to share the moment of crossing that line. It was all I thought about with training, getting over the line to the finish and I was determined not to be Peters first Achilles athlete that didn’t make it, the fear of another failure was a great motivator.

New York, the Big Apple, the city that never sleeps is an amazing city and on Sunday November 1st 2015, on a clear, cool morning we were the among the first athletes to start. Crossing the Verrazano Bridge with Lance and Peter at Staten Island and looking across to the iconic skyline of Manhattan and knowing Central Park was well beyond that, 42k seemed a long, long way away.

Athletes with disability are the first starters, followed by the elite women, then the elite men and then those athletes who were chosen by ballot are released in groups of 10,000 until over 50,000 athletes are on the course.

Training in the streets of Lower Hutt doesn’t prepare you for the sights and sounds of Staten Island – Brooklyn – Queens – Bronx – Manhattan or the one million spectators lining the streets of those 5 boroughs. The cheering, the encouragement is unbelievable the marathon is a party all of New York celebrates and embraces. Coming onto 1st Avenue in Manhattan with runners as far as the eye can see and with spectators six deep on the sidewalk it is a sight I will never forget, the noise is deafening and its a sensory overload and nothing like the Petone Esplanade on a Sunday afternoon training run.

One by one the miles slowly got behind us, with Lance at my side keeping me watered and fed and with Peter literally watching my back to protect me from passing runners we just kept moving. It was dark by the time we got to Central Park and with many others who were walking at this stage and 42k’s after we had started, I crossed the finish line in an official time of 8 hours, 37 minutes and 1 second.

It was an emotional finish, we had made it and I had done it, 35 years after having my life in the balance and going through 8 and a half hours of brain surgery to save my life and never ever thinking I would run again, 35 years later in another 8 and a half hours of my life I had finished one of the most famous marathons in the world.

I didn’t run it, but did discover that I could in fact move and keep moving. On my office wall at home I have a Finishers medal from the New York Marathon.

Strength doesn’t come from what you can do, it comes from over coming what you once thought you couldn’t.

On a personal level I had often struggled over the years to accept my “disability”, there’s more to that story for another time, I had lived keeping my disability at arm’s length and avoiding anything that might draw attention to it. I discovered when I crossed the finish line in New York, I was finally able to make peace with it and myself. It felt like it was no longer a struggle I had to contend with, it was as if I was no longer identified by it but finally I could identify with it, Achilles helped me find that, in Achilles I had also found my people, I had found my tribe.

In my first installment in GrownUps I talked about how Kelly had said to me early in 2014 after going to watch my mate Tim compete

“Why don’t you have a go at the Coast to Coast Mountain Run Rich, it will change your life”

How right he was if I hadn’t of tried and despite failing in my first Mountain Run attempt, I never would have discovered what I was capable of,

A couple of days after the marathon Lance and I were talking over breakfast “So what’s next for you now”? he asked.

“I wouldn’t mind going back and giving the Coast to Coast Mountain Run another go, I think if I get the chance to go back I can get over that mountain” …

But that’s another instalment in the story.

• Peter Loft, Richard Warwick and Lance Walker over the finish line at the New York Marathon 2015