Richard Cook trains every Saturday at an overflow parking lot loop at Richmond Raceway.
Wearing race bib No. 17758, 53-year-old Richard Cook will position his push-rim wheelchair at the 2019 Markel Richmond Half Marathon starting line on Saturday, Nov. 16, with more than 9,000 runners lined up behind him.
“Up until last year, whatever I ran was on my feet,” he says.
Last year’s half marathon, part of the VCU Health Richmond Marathon event, was Cook’s first time participating as a wheelchair racer. “It’s a lot of upper body,” he says. “I didn’t realize how much arm, shoulder and back strength that you needed to power that chair, especially going up hills.”
This year he wants to push himself even harder. “I want a PR [personal record],” he says, smiling, “because if you don’t have a goal, and that’s mine — then what’s the point? And it’s not just in sports, it’s in life.”
When he was just 12 years old, Cook was diagnosed with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT), a degenerative nerve disorder characterized by progressive loss of muscle tissue. “I spent a lot of time at the children’s hospital,” he recalls. “I was mad and angry. ‘Why do I have this? Why can’t I have normal feet and legs like everybody else?’ But you learn to accept. This is the way it is.”
Today, Cook can still walk, but he can no longer run.
He was often discouraged from getting involved in athletics because of his CMT. “For so long I had doctors and well-meaning family members tell me, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t do that. You need to take it easy. Don’t go playing sports too hard because you can’t build muscle like able-bodied people can,’ ” he says. “After you get told that so many times, you start to believe it.” Since 2010 he has run numerous races, including the Fredericksburg Historic Half Marathon, Richmond Marathon and Richmond Half Marathon. He ran Richmond’s Monument Avenue 10K in 2018.
“The way I look at it now, I will use whatever I’ve got until it’s no longer there,” he says of his transition to wheelchair racing.
Wheelchair athletes have participated in the Richmond Marathon since the first event in 1978, says Pete Woody, Sports Backers’ public relations and communications manager. Sports Backers works closely with Sportable, a nonprofit that provides adaptive sports and recreation opportunities to Richmonders with physical and visual disabilities, “before, during and after the race to make sure all details regarding accessibility are taken care of,” Woody explains. “There is a wheelchair-specific start wave that goes off first to start the races, along with accessible parking and specific areas near the start line to gather and prepare.”
Hunter Leemon, Sportable’s executive director, says that although athletes such as Cook know they are an inspiration to all those who see them compete, “They’re out there to kick butt; they’re out there because they want a PR, too, because they want the same things we all want as able-bodied participants — to perform at their best level.” Cook is one of three wheelchair racers who will participate in the Richmond Half Marathon through Sportable.
Cook and his wife, Ruth
Sportable provides training, coaches, equipment and practice space. For the wheelchair racers like Cook, Leemon says, “It’s very important that our athletes are not training where there is vehicle traffic, because that’s very dangerous, so we secure a safe place to do the training program.” Cook has trained at Bryan Park’s Azalea Loop, Richmond Raceway and on the indoor track at St. Christopher’s School.
On race day, Leemon says Sportable will provide support to its wheelchair athletes while they are on the course. “Richard and our athletes that are using push-rim chairs ... you need to make sure you’re providing support in case they lose a tire,” he says. Volunteers on bikes, “a glorified NASCAR crew,” Leemon says, are available in case anything goes wrong. “The athletes can call in, and we can go there, change their tire quickly and get them back on the road,” he says. “I’ve been here five years, and we’ve only lost one tire during all the races, but you need to have it, because if they lose a tire, then they’re out.”
Cook’s push-rim wheelchair was paid for by the Challenged Athletes Foundation; Sportable helped him with the paperwork to get the grant, he says.
“The biggest difference in the chair,” Cook says, smiling, “is I really like downhills.” He explains, “When you’re running, when you’re on your feet — whether you’re running uphill or downhill, you’re still running. When you’re in the chair, for me, right now, I still haven’t built up nearly enough of the upper-body strength I need to power the chair up the hill, but when I crest the hill and go over the other side, it’s way better. I can coast. It’s a relief.”
Cook is thankful for the volunteers, Sportable, and all who helped and encouraged him throughout his training.
“I found out with the athletes — we’re all just encouraging each other,” he says. “It doesn’t matter what your ability is or how mobile you are, there’s always something you can help another athlete with.”
Crossing the finish line Saturday will make all the hard work worth it. “I guess it’s to prove the naysayers wrong,” he says. “I was told that I couldn’t, I shouldn’t, and now, I know I can.”
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