Wow, a lot just happened. I just got back from the opening ceremonies for the 2015 New York City Marathon. It was nice that I got to march in it. Local clubs from New York marched up to the finish line followed by representatives from all the nations that are running Sunday's race.
This picture is on Facebook, and I'd like to include the full quote of my friend Kristin who posted it. "Fantastic to see you walking the parade, Michael!! So very, very happy for you. A true show of what strength, determination, tenacity, and ultimate optimism can do. You fought all odds and look where you are tonight! Your family must be so proud of you, as I and your PPTC family, your friends, and running mates are!" It's a great thing she said, especially in light of the interview that I posted below. I also think it's great that you can tell how freaked out I have inside at the moment that picture was taken. I was only yards from the New York City Marathon finish line and honestly I was ready to fall apart.
But then just as operate group got to the finish line, Peter Ciaccia the race director of the New York City Marathon gave me a hug and told me that he was happy to see that I was better. I told him I'd be running next year, give me a pat on the back and I felt better.
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Last week I was interviewed over the phone by a nice reporter from the Huffington Post. I wasn't really sure what was about in a couple days later I saw this piece. I was quoted as saying
Michael Ring, 19-time NYCM runner: My first [marathon was in 1979] and I threw up all over the Queensboro Bridge, then crawled all the way over the bridge, just hoping there was some sort of aid station at the bottom … It was a long day.
and
Ring: [My first marathon], when I got to Central Park, I made a decision. I decided that I needed to keep running as long as I was conscious. I was just so exhausted that I said, "No more water stops, no more nothing, just keep running."
The two quotes together didn't really make sense and I didn't think I needed to share them. The first marathon was in 1980 and I did not finish after I threw up all over Queens. The first one I finished was in 1993 and I did make that decision to run as long as I was conscious once I got to Central Park. But I just got another Google news alert about myself where I was seriously quoted from that same phone interview. Below is what they said I said
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It’s possible that Baig has seen fellow Achilles-devotee Michael Ring at some of the local meetings. Ring’s situation is in many ways the polar opposite of Baig’s. Ring had run 29 marathons and was training for his 30th when, in May 2014, he found himself “tripping over stuff” as if his “brain wasn’t talking to [his] feet.” He went to the emergency room, expecting a long day of waiting-room tedium -- instead, he got a four-month hospitalization, diagnosed with Guillain-Barré syndrome and temporarily paralyzed.
The man who could run 26.2 miles seemingly at the snap of his fingers suddenly, inexplicably, couldn’t take a step.
“That expression ‘relearning to walk’ -- you don’t know what that means until you don’t know how to walk,” Ring told HuffPost. “I was looking at people like, ‘How do you do that? How do you take a step without your knee locking behind you?’”
It took him 12 months after he was released from the hospital to be able to walk three miles. But now, with the help of his medical team, running friends and the newly founded Brooklyn chapter of Achilles -- and with those literal and symbolic first steps behind him -- he has settled upon his next goal. So what if he still has to use a wheelchair on occasion -- in 2016, he says, he will compete in the New York City Marathon.
“[Achillles] has been really good to me,” Ring said. “... I know in a year I’ll be able to handle 26 [miles] … [My support groups and medical teams] are getting me stronger and they’re helping me figure out how to do things with the [means] that I have.”
“I’m an atheist,” he continued. “And I think running did for me what church does for a lot of people. I meet with people who care about each other, we have goals -- when I was in the hospital, 95 percent of the people who visited me were running friends.”
If running is Ring's religion, then he’s joined in the pews not just by other Achilles athletes, but also by those throng of other charities that have similarly dedicated time, effort and money to helping those with disabilities experience the marathon’s energy and electricity.
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But I was dealt a shitty deck. And I guess I have to make the best of it. I could lay down and not be scared or I can get up and be scared. You know what I'm doing
And like everything in the media only some of the stuff is true. But here I am on News 12
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| "Michael Ring"
As-it-happens update ⋅ October 16, 2015
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Going the Distance: Runner beats odds
A year and a half ago Michael Ring was preparing for his 30th marathon when he suddenly felt something was wrong. (October 15, 2015 9:35 AM).
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Posts
That is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteGreat Interview!
ReplyDeleteLove you,
Love your spirit...
Michael-You used to kick ass before and now you're just kicking ass in a different way. You're not being famous or inspiring but aren't you just being you, albeit in a different way, which is a good thing?
ReplyDelete