He used to run track. He was fast enough to sprint the 800m and 1500m distances during his high school years. But after a paralyzing 30-foot fall from a hotel balcony in Mexico, Robert McDonald was cautiously hopeful when he could twitch his left toe.
That twitch represented hope – it was hope against a stacked set of odds in which doctors gave Robert a 5% chance of ever walking again.
Robert was now back in Toronto under the restorative care of The Lyndhurst Spinal Cord Rehabilitation Centre. When he first started, he couldn’t move, couldn’t stand, couldn’t walk. Week after week, Robert worked with a team of specialized physiotherapists through five hours of physio every day.
Three months after the accident, Robert could walk on his own again. He could make his way through 500m and then he would need to rest. “I had to think through every step that I had to take,” Robert recalled. Walking wasn’t just physically tiring, it was a mental trial as well.
As he got more mobile, he decided to try running again. “I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed running until I couldn’t do it anymore. I decided to try and run a half marathon and I asked my friends if they wanted to do it.” By that first half marathon, 72 runners had joined Robert and raised $73,500 in the process.
Six months later, however, Robert decided that he would do the full marathon at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon in 2016.
“I want to be able to get back to the point where I am able to run and not think about it,” Robert shares. The road to a full marathon, however, is not a conventional one for Robert.
“I can only run twice a week – I do a short run and a long run. After my long run, I need two to three days of complete rest for my muscles and my nerves to recover.” Robert’s adapted training regimen also excludes any semblance of speed work. “I can’t do speed work because of my gait – I would actually fall as my right leg can’t keep up with my left.”
In preparation for the full marathon distance of 42.2K, Robert’s longest training run has been 28K. “I’m confident and optimistic that I’ll finish, but I’m also scared and worried at the same time.”
When asked about what will keep him motivated through the full distance, Robert replied, “I am doing this for all the people have supported me and for all the team members running beside me. But this isn’t about me – this is about raising awareness for spinal cord research so that others with the same injury would have better odds than I did.”
At this year’s Toronto Waterfront Marathon, Robert will be joined by 115 runners as they raise funds for Spinal Cord research. While he won’t be as quick as he was during his high school days, Robert is certainly back on track to help himself and others to defy the odds and live life to the fullest.
