Don't mind her... she's just paralyzed

While playing "Barbies" as a kid, this was the standard introduction of the "old" Barbies (with the stiff legs) to the New and Improved Barbies with the bendable legs.

At that age, we didn't really know what it meant to be paralyzed. We didn't know that people who are paralyzed have no control over their muscles - we thought they were just "stuck" in that position. I don't think we ever even saw a paralyzed person, except on TV (Perry Mason).

But in my athletic endeavors, I have since met a handful of amazingly able "challenged athletes" and Paralympians. And so it was a couple of years ago while running in Disney's "Race for Taste" 10k that I saw a young girl in the race, using an old fashioned wheel chair. After the race, I approached her and her Dad and asked if they had heard of "The Challenged Athlete Foundation" - which helps to arrange racing wheelchairs for challenged athletes. They had not.

Later, I searched the Internet and found contact information and called their home in Ft. Myers and asked if I could put them in touch with a representative from CAF. They were thrilled! I called my friend Robin Adams and turned everything over to her.

Now Arielle is racing on her high school track team and has raced in the Gasparilla 15k, ING Half Marathon, and other races! Here is her story:
http://www.christopherreeve.org/site/c.mtKZKgMWKwG/b.5036577/k.5A52/Standing_Up_for_What_is_Right.htm
CAF is always looking for donations, but now, they are looking for recipients! If you know of anyone, young or young at heart, who may benefit from an athletic wheel chair, email me at cskiper@gmail.com so we can get them in touch with CAF. We all donate to good causes, but how many times do we really get to see the end result?! http://www.challengedathletes.org/


Now, back to my Barbie story... I started my day feeling like the old Barbie. My legs were soooo sore from the last two days that it was even hard to sleep. I kept crouching into the "child pose" and could barely get my butt down to my heels - my quads felt completely swollen.

So I didn't know how I would ever make it through today's WOD - a 10k time trial. Dawn and I made plans to meet at North Shore Pool to start our run at 5:45... and I planned to be there early to warm up. I originally planned on a 3 mile warmup but I could barely move. I managed about 800 yards but was surprised how much my legs loosened up just starting and stopping for 800 yards.

If I'd had my cell phone with me, I would have canceled the run! But Dawn arrived and we both begrudgingly agreed to get it over with. My Garmin locked up so I thought I'd just do the entire 6.2 miles with her. We started out with the full moon low in the sky. As we got going, my legs did start to loosen up more. At the half way point, Dawn gave me her Garmin so I was able to pick up the pace during the last half. I finished in 57:50 and Dawn came in at 58:45. My latest 10k races have been in the range of 51:35 to 52:24 so that shows how stiff I was and how humid it was. But it was really great just to be able to get this run in.

We finished with the sun just coming up over Tampa Bay - always a beautiful sight!