Come and listen to my story ‘bout a man named Ed.
A New York drummer till his sister came and said:
“I think the Boilermaker is where you ought to go.”
So they found him a wheelchair
And he raced it like a pro.2
It’s that time again if you live in or around the Utica, New York area for the Boilermaker race! The Boilermaker Road Race was established in 1978 by Earle C. Reed who was looking for a way to give back to the community that had supported his family’s business, Utica Boilers (now ECR International). The 15K road race began with just over 800 runners and a budget of $750. This years race will have over 13,000 runners and 18 wheelchair racers. The 2010 Boilermaker will mark the return of my friend, Ed Bradley, in the wheelchair division after an absence of 8 years.
Ed first raced in the Boilermaker in 1990 after his sister Betsy approached him with the idea. He was born with a condition called Spastic Diplegia,which is historically known as Little's Disease, and is a form of Cerebral Palsy(CP) that is a neuromuscular condition of hypertonia and spasticity in the muscles of the lower extremities of the human body, usually those of the hips and pelvis. It does not require the use of a wheelchair as those with the condition can walk often with assistive devices such as walkers and crutches. Ed got his first crutches at the age of six. Since he had no wheelchair, he had to borrow a second hand wheelchair to train and race in.
There were four wheelchair entries in the 1990 race and Ed came in 4th. Says Ed: “Didn't have a clue about what I was doing but still finished!!” I asked if he had done any kind of racing before that? To which he replied: “Nothing. Playing drums was my sport.” He had played wheelchair basketball once in his teens but didn’t like it.
Ed’s family was and is fairly active. His parents, Dr. and Mrs. Ed and Mary Bradley played tennis and golf. His older sister Kathy played tennis and his younger sister Betsy was a gymnast. It was Betsy who came up with the idea of entering the Boilermaker. Says Ed: “I think it was late winter, early spring and she asked if i wanted to try and find a chair to for that first race then?”
Asked how long he trained: “Maybe 2 months/ do it. I found one (a wheelchair) pretty easily and got help from a guy who was basically the only local racer at that time.” At one race Ed remembers losing his voice before the race “I think one of the best was a year I completely lost my voice. Now, one of the etiquette things a "slower" wheelchair racer must do is tell the runners where he is, especially going down hill. Well, that year I was overwhelmed with how much the runners helped me do that. It was almost like they were sent a memo about my voice being gone.”
After that first race, Ed competed in about 40 races, mostly smaller ones, over the next 13 years, missing the Boilermaker only one year when he injured his wrist. Then in 2003, The big “C” reared it’s ugly head in the form of testicular cancer. Same day surgery to remove the cancer, a post-op infection to deal with and the follow-up chemotherapy took a lot out of him as anyone can imagine. His girlfriend Tina was right by his side through out the whole thing even helping him to shave his head once the hair started to fall out.
Now in 2010, Ed is back and in good form! He has been training hard for months and is READY TO RUMBLE!!!!!!!!!!!! His dad who is 76 has even rode with him on a couple of training runs. As told by Ed: “I will tell you that because I have been doing this for so long that a lot of people know me and a lot of those people know I have been out of the race for a while so I am anticipating a very emotional start. I told one of the guys tonight that I will probably be crying until the first major hill in the race and then everything will get serious.”You would think with a great story like this the local news and the Boilermaker committees would be all over this story but they are not. They are also missing an opportunity to bring in a wheelchair racer from Zimbabwe that Ed had been asked to coach. That fell through when the Boilermaker committee refused to spend the money. Do these people not know anything about PR?
You can watch the race live on http://www.wktv.com/boilermaker. I will be there at 5:45 am (my time) to cheer on Ed, wishing I could be there in person.
WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!! GO ED!
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spastic_diplegia
[2] Apologies for lame ditty. As I said to Ed, "I ain't no Paul McCartney." haha
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Comments
Mr. Ed. Pump that iron, man!
R
I feel some bond with them and you--I grew up on Brooklyn's Utica Ave. (In Crown Heights, we have a row of streets named after NYC cities.)