I have two Josh stories — my favorite, however, is about my late brother-in-law and one of my best friends, Jim Henry. Jim lost an arm when he was 22 years old, in a factory accident. He became a great cyclist, even though he hadn’t been a biker before his accident. He won a silver medal at the Paralympics in Seoul, in the 50+ mile road bike race. Around that time, we did the Josh. I was standing in the corral waiting for him to come in, and heard some commotion on one of the HAM radios. The guy said, “Oh no, there’s a crash. It’s bad. We need an ambulance. Oh, he’s back on his bike, he says he wants to ride… We need an ambulance, this guy lost his arm, but he wants to finish the race”. I hear Jim in the background yelling, “I lost my arm 20 years ago, I just need a bandaid for my knee!”
The other story is not nearly as good, but shows how nervous some of us get in the excitement. I was racing with Jim Carey. Our cyclist broke away with one other… John Casale and Kip were the other paddlers. Kip ran smack into me in the exchange and I fell on my butt, then Jimmy and I got so nervous sprinting to the water that we put the boat in facing the absolute wrong direction. Needless to say, despite having Sandu who ran a 28- or 29-minute split, we got 2nd to John and Kip.
Hope to be back one of these years!!
Kathy Manizza