UNITED KINGDOM: ATHLETICS - Richard Whitehead born with no legs below his knee prepares to run the New York Marathon
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- ITN Source
UNITED KINGDOM: ATHLETICS - Richard Whitehead born with no legs below his knee prepares to run the New York Marathon
Every year the New York Marathon attracts thousands of runners hoping to complete one of the world's greatest road races. This year, some of them might want to look to Richard Whitehead for inspiration. Born with no legs below his knees, Whitehead will run the 26 mile (42 kilometres) course that winds its way through the city's five suburbs. Using specially-cushioned running legs, Whitehead first completed the course two years ago in 5 hours and 18 minutes without ever having run a race before. "I wanted a new challenge really and I've always wanted to run from an early age, from being inspired from watching the Terry Fox story - which is obviously a great story of endeavour and an inspiration to a lot of athletes, generally," said Whitehead who also competes in swimming, cricket and sledge hockey. In 1980, Fox, who had his right leg amputated due to bone cancer, decided to run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. But after running 5,373 kilometres over 143 days, the Canadian was forced to stop and he died at the age of 22. In 2004, South African Hendrik Ramaala won the men's marathon race with a finishing time of 2:09:28 and fellow Briton Paula Radcliffe put the trauma of the Athens Olympics behind her to win a dramatic victory in 2:23:10. Last year the top male finisher was Paul Tergat of Kenya in a time of 2:09:30, while Jelena Prokopcuka of Latvia won the female marathon in a time of 2:24:41. Since that first marathon, Whitehead has also run the Snowdonia Marathon in the United Kingdom and the Two Oceans Ultra Marathon in South Africa. He says his training regime is similar to that of his fellow competitors but admits his disability puts a greater demand on other body parts. "The only difference is the biomechanics of my running," he says. "I'm having to use different muscle groups than a normal runner. So, I'm having to use my thighs, my quads and even my arms and my shoulders to power me forward as well." Whitehead arrives for his training sessions with his custom-made running legs in a bag and carefully replaces his normal prosthetic limbs with them, tightening screws where necessary and stretching his own thigh and back muscles before he approaches the track. The New York Marathon draws millions of spectators who line the route and cheer for the runners, almost a third of whom come from outside the United States. And, while he's happy to receive any and all support, Whitehead says it's not always easy to convince people of what he can achieve. "The barriers that I have to overcome, really, are attitudes, I would say. Barriers that are physical barriers can always be removed or there's always ways of getting around them. And, the hardest thing to do is to change people's attitudes towards you as an athlete," Whitehead says. This year Whitehead, 30, is raising the expectations, hoping to knock an hour off of his race time from two years ago. "Hopefully the positive things that I'm doing can inspire other able-bodied and disabled athletes, runners, to do the same kind of things," he says. Tattooed on his right arm, Whitehead carries his motto "cometh the hour, cometh the man" at all times. His run in New York will raise money for Sarcoma Cancer UK and Whitehead hopes to find a sponsor that will allow him to run for charity more often. World-class runners and novices alike will pound the New York pavement in the city's annual marathon on November 5.
ITN Source | August 26, 2006
