Friday, May 07, 1999
Top wheelchair racers will be here
BY MICHAEL PERRY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The first competitor to finish the inaugural Flying Pig Marathon on Sunday will be in a wheelchair.
The Cincinnati Rotary Wheelchair Marathon Event is scheduled to begin 10 minutes before runners take off in the Flying Pig, and the top wheelchair athletes typically finish in 90 to 100 minutes. By contrast, the expected first-place time for the men's winner is about 2 hours, 20 minutes and is about three hours for the women.
The Flying Pig has attracted three of the premier wheelchair marathoners in the world:
• Saul Mendoza, 32, who finished second at the Boston Marathon, is the favorite in the men's open division. “He's got the big bull's-eye on his back,” fellow competitor Kenny Carnes said. “He's a very light guy, about 125 pounds. He can climb a hill like a billy goat. He's just so strong and fit.” A Mexico City native who lives outside Atlanta, Mendoza contracted po lio when he was 6 months old. In 1997, he won 30 of 32 races.
• DeAnna Sodoma, 31, from the San Diego area, is coming to town with her mother and 13-month-old daughter and is expected to win the women's open division. She was a member of the U.S. Paralympic team in 1992 and '96 and holds the world record in the 5,000 meters. Sodoma was struck by a car while cycling.
• Carnes, 43, is the favorite in the master's division (40 and over). An Eagles Sportschairs teammate of Mendoza, this will be Carnes' 117th marathon.
Carnes was 17 years old and competing in a semi-professional motorcross event in Virginia when the rider in front of him lost control of his bike. Carnes flew off his motorcycle, which ended up hitting him. He suf fered a broken back and became paralyzed from the waist down.
“I just despised my wheelchair,” Carnes said. “I hated every minute of being disabled. I was finally backed into a corner and had no real choice but to deal with it. I was a little hard-headed.
“It took me 12 years of stumbling around, trying to find my niche.”
In August 1987, he was in a Maryland shopping mall when a double amputee in a wheelchair asked Carnes if he was involved in wheelchair sports.
The man invited Carnes to a pool party for a national handicapped sports organization in Washington. A month later, Carnes competed in his first 10K race, finishing in 55 minutes; his best time now is 20 minutes, 30 seconds.
“I just took right to it,” he said.
Today he will be in Grand Rapids, Mich., for a 25K before traveling to Cincinnati for Sunday's event.
Prize money for the wheelchair competitors Sunday totals $5,800, including $800 each to the men's and women's winners. Through Thursday, 16 wheelchair participants were registered.
Carnes competes in 10 to 12 marathons a year and was No.1 in the world in the early '90s. He holds the world record for 54 miles and every year competes in a 367-mile race in Alaska.
He trains with his teammates for 20 miles six days a week and works with weights.
“I like the distance,” he said. “A marathon is the equivalent to an abled body doing 10,000 push-ups — non-stop. That's kind of what it feels like when you're done with a marathon.”
Flying Pig Marathon Guide
