In 2013, Paul Erway completed 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 weeks.
One of those was the Boston Marathon, the year of the bombing.
Notice that this writer didn’ t say Erway“ runs” in these marathons. Because he doesn’ t. He wheels.
An automobile accident in 1980, the weekend before he was to graduate from college, left him a paraplegic, with no feeling or movement from the chest down. He has been confined to a wheelchair for 38 years.
He jokes that before the accident, he had studied animal husbandry in college with the intention of working in horse“ reining” – an American version of dressage.“ If not for the accident, I might be living in a trailer beside a horse stable, mucking stalls. Now I’ ve gotten to go overseas and to every state in the country. It’ s quite a life.”
Not surprisingly, that wasn’ t his attitude in June 1980, in the days following his accident, when the spinal surgeon told him he would be using a wheelchair for the rest of his life and that he would“ need to deal with it.”
Three times in that first year, having gone past denial, anger and bargaining and reached the fourth level of grief( which is depression), he said,“ If I’ d had a gun, I might well have used it on myself. So, it’ s probably a good thing I didn’ t have a gun.”
A chance encounter on his college campus( Morrisville State College in Upstate New York, near Syracuse) changed his course from thoughts of suicide to a full life of helping others.
“ There was a kid on campus with spina bifida who’ d been in a wheelchair his whole life. As we were heading out to class, he said,‘ I’ ll race you to the lamppost.’ He was a little kid. I’ d played basketball and football, and jumped high hurdles, in high school. But he beat me by half the distance to the pole. That got my fires burning.”
Hereby resolved: to eventually beat that kid in a race.
The actual training to win races didn’ t begin for a few years, though, until Erway graduated from Penn State University’ s school of business and moved to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for a sales and marketing job with a paper company.
There, he got involved in a local wheelchair athletic group.“ Playing in that program allowed me to network for the first time with other people with disabilities.”
He switched jobs, going to work for a company that sold wheelchairs and adapted vehicles.“ I came to realize that while people hate being in a wheelchair, they love being able to drive a car. It was my first realization of the importance of being able to make people happy.”
He remembered his own first two questions after his accident:“ Can I still drive?”“ And can I have sex?” Not necessarily in that order.
“ I began developing the outlook that the more people you help, the more you will be blessed,” he said.“ That’ s where my life really started to change.”
He began to train for racing, getting to the 1990 Para-World Championships in Assen, Netherlands.“ I got smoked,” he said.
But it encouraged him to come back home and begin weight training with an ex-Penn State football player.“ He was 6-foot-4, 280 pounds,” Erway remembered.“ So, when he told me to do two more on the bench, I did two more.”
He went to the 1992 nationals in Salt Lake City, a trial for the U. S. Paralympic team, but got beat by a 15-year-old.“ I was over 30, and most of the competition was much younger,” said Erway.“ Also, most of them didn’ t have jobs, they could train full-time. I had to work full-time.”
He did some regional 10ks,“ but my heart wasn’ t in it.”
In 1994, Erway moved to Shelbyville, Kentucky, to start his own wheelchair and adapted van company. Eventually, Superior Van & Mobility in Louisville – another company that adapts motor vehicles, cars, vans and trucks – hired him in marketing and sales, covering all of Kentucky, Southern Indiana and Eastern Tennessee.
“ It’ s a gratifying business,” he said.“ Every day, I’ m helping somebody get going again.”
But cruel fate wasn’ t done with Erway. In July 2006, while speeding down a steep hill in Shelbyville during a training run, he tried to avoid a pickup truck on the road, lost control of his wheelchair and slammed into the driver’ s door. He fractured both his scapula and collarbone, broke two ribs, punctured a lung, suffered a spinal compression fracture and part of his scalp was separated from his skull.
Also, it was 94 degrees that day, so while the medical technicians were cautioning,“ don’ t move him,’” he lay on the asphalt and burned 60 percent of his back.
One helicopter ride, two hospital stays, three rehab stints, four operations and five months out of work followed. But this time,“ My attitude was,‘ Racing brought me back before – it will bring me back again.’”
Four years later, he was competing in the world’ s premiere wheelchair marathon in Oita, Japan.
And three years after that, he set out on his“ marathon marathon” – competing in 50
18 EXTOL SPORTS / MARCH 2018