{"id":3409,"date":"2014-04-20T11:00:33","date_gmt":"2014-04-20T15:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/wordpress\/?p=3409"},"modified":"2014-04-20T23:59:32","modified_gmt":"2014-04-21T03:59:32","slug":"duos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bunewsservice.com\/marathon2014\/duos\/","title":{"rendered":"Dynamic Duos: Able-bodied, Disabled Team up to Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Natnicha Chuwiruch<\/strong>
\nBU News Service<\/em><\/p>\n

There are many famous duos in the world, Batman and Robin, Bonnie and Clyde, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. And in Monday\u2019s Marathon, there will be no shortages of dynamic duos on the race course. Big Al\u2019 and Pals and In the \u201cNick\u201d of Time are two duo teams that will be competing alongside well-known father and son duo Team Hoyt.<\/p>\n

Duo team racing is a way for athletes with disabilities to compete in the Boston Marathon. For instance, a team could be comprised of one able-bodied person pushing a permanently disabled person in a customized wheelchair. One of the biggest challenges is that the able-bodied athlete must be able to qualify with the standard time set for their age and gender at a certified marathon, according to rules set by the Boston Athletic Association.<\/p>\n

Big Al\u2019 and Pals was formed by Craig Welton, 32, and Alosha O\u2019Brien, 29. O\u2019Brien was born in Gomel, Belarus, which was affected by the Chernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown in 1986, causing him to grow up with a physical disability. O\u2019Brien was adopted and moved to Massachusetts 11 years ago through the Chernobyl Childrens program. He joined the Best Buddies program, an international non-profit organization that helps people with disabilities find work, as well as friends. Last year, in the Best Buddies program O\u2019Brien met Craig Welton who asked O\u2019Brien if he wanted to compete in a marathon. And the partnership was born.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien and Craig trained through Boston\u2019s grueling winter and were able to qualify for the Boston Marathon. It will be the first time Big Al\u2019 and Pals run as a duo team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis winter was brutal for people who were training,\u201d said Welton in an interview in his office. \u201cBut the cool thing about it is that I was not running alone. You don\u2019t feel like it\u2019s a difficult task when you get out of bed at 6 a.m. and there\u2019s still snow on the road from two days ago. It would be pretty miserable if you ran by yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another duo team, In the \u201cNick\u201d of Time consists of Ted Painter, 42, and Nick Draper, 25, both members of the New England chapter of Team Hoyt. Draper was born with a rare health condition called Pelizaeus Merzbacher Disease, which causes an inability to form the covering that protects nerves and promotes the efficient transmission of nerve impulses. This disease impairs motor function development. In Draper\u2019s case, he was left with extremely limited mobility.<\/p>\n

Painter has been racing for years but only teamed up with Draper last September. Painter was at a party when a friend who was a supporter of Team Hoyt approached him. Painter was wearing a Boston Marathon t-shirt at the time, which led to a discussion of the possibility of him running with Draper.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that time I was doing a lot of soul searching,\u201d said Painter in a phone interview. \u201cThere has to be more to life than just staying fit or running for my own personal enjoyment.\u201d When the opportunity to run with a disabled athlete arose, Painter\u2019s response was, \u201cwhen can I start?\u201d<\/p>\n

Painter recounted how he had to contact Draper\u2019s mother for her consent before the team could begin training. He said that she was very nervous about allowing a stranger to take her son out in a customized racing chair and run, however when In the \u201cNick\u201d of Time trained for the first day, she changed her mind and became an avid supporter. The duo-team competed in Plymouth in November but did not meet the qualifying time for the Boston Marathon. But they trained harder for the Hyannis Marathon in February where they managed to qualify for Boston with time to spare.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t feel disabled when we run,\u201d said Draper to Painter after their first training session together. Painter explained how honored he feels to be Draper\u2019s legs. \u201cA friend told me that Nick has been waiting for someone like me to push him,\u201d said Painter. \u201cTo be able to give something like this to somebody, to be that kind of example for my kids, it means the most to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robert M. Hensel, The Guinness World Records holder for non-stop wheelies in a wheelchair, inspires many of the duo runners. He says: \u201cPlacing one foot in front of the other, I\u2019ve climbed to higher lengths. Reaching beyond my own limitations, to show my inner strength. No obstacle too hard for this warrior to overcome. I\u2019m just a man on a mission to prove my disability hasn\u2019t won.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not just there to run, we\u2019re there to compete,\u201d said Painter. \u201cBoston\u2019s a very different course to get through, but we\u2019re going to give it a shot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are many famous duos in the world, Batman and Robin, Bonnie and Clyde, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. And in Monday\u2019s Marathon, there will be no shortages of dynamic duos on the race course. Story by By Natnicha Chuwiruch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[27],"coauthors":[13],"class_list":["post-3409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-runners","tag-runners"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bunewsservice.com\/marathon2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bunewsservice.com\/marathon2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bunewsservice.com\/marathon2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bunewsservice.com\/marathon2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bunewsservice.com\/marathon2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3409"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/bunewsservice.com\/marathon2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4166,"href":"https:\/\/bunewsservice.com\/marathon2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3409\/revisions\/4166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bunewsservice.com\/marathon2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bunewsservice.com\/marathon2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bunewsservice.com\/marathon2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3409"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bunewsservice.com\/marathon2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}