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Running stories, runner tips and running links are what this web site are all about.
I have included race information at the end of this article. Be sure to check it out.
I want to thank Glen Feldpausch for sending me this very special story. Thanks Glen! From the Lansing State Journal - October 8, 1996 Winner won't run from test. Travis McNeil wants just one thing: To
go farther and faster Travis McNeil sat buckled in tight. The Cedar Paint roller-coaster ride called The Rapter had reached its peak. Then, his car jerked down, screaming toward the bottom of a seemingly endless fall. Travis, testing fate, stuck his right leg outside the car for just a moment and... "And it tore my right leg off," the Lansing Catholic freshman said while sitting against the wall in the school corridor. That's how Travis, who is running on the cross country team, lost his right leg. Well, not really. Actually, that is what he once told a six-year-old neighbor boy. Several years ago, Travis was swimming in the ocean. He felt a hard tug on his leg. He turned around. A shark bit off his leg. Well, not exactly. That is what he once told curious fifth-graders, Travis said, a big mischievous smile on his boy scout face with blue eyes and jet black hair.
Yes, people ask about about his leg. "When I go to the mall wearing my shorts, little kids will stand in the aisle and point at my leg," Travis said. "It Is kind of annoying." For the record, Travis' right leg stopped growing when he was two years old. Was amputated above the knee when he was two years old. He has no memory of ever having a right leg. It is hardly as dramatic as the stories Travis has conjured up. Of course, everyone who has met Travis will say the truly remarkable happened after he lost his leg. Setting goals. Mary Dunlop was doing her routine time check of the middle school students that had said they wanted to try out far her high school crass country team. McNeil, a five-foot-four, 106-pound freshman, had scrawled his name on the sheets she had posted months previous. Dunlap called the McNeils. "I want to come out for the team," a voice said. Dunlop asked if he had run. "I can run a mile," he said. That's a good start. Have you seen a doctor lately? How's your health?
The copyright of the article A Most Unusual Runner! in Running is owned by . Permission to republish A Most Unusual Runner! in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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