A journey to recovery
Onondaga Lake Park Trail in Syracuse, NY provides a life-changing pathway
By Mike Smithson
There’s no doubt that trails provide enjoy- ment for all. And for many, trails serve as a training ground for the mind, body and spirit. As Syracuse prepares to host the 2019 International Trails Symposium, Central New Yorker, Mike Smithson, shares his story of training along the Onondaga Lake Park Trail.
T
he journey started for me a couple of years ago... I don’t mind sharing the extreme
depression I found myself experienc- ing. It had been two and a half years since my spinal cord stroke. I had intense pain in my back, neuropathy in my legs and spasms that would hit me like a cattle prod into my hip joint that would travel down my leg like a bolt of lightning.
That would occur about every 30 seconds and go on for hours. How do people live with this? How did people go on with these things for years? For decades?
Mike Smithson in training on the Onondaga Lake Park Trail, Syracuse, NY; photo courtesy of Mike Greenlar,
Syracuse.com
I had whipped a mild addiction to opiates the year before, but I had also retired from a job in a nonprofit and I had little purpose. I was beginning to ask myself the question of “what is the point. I’m just taking up space.”
I’m a Navy vet. The Spinal Cord Injury Unit has a dedicated recreation therapist named Lydia who invited me to an adaptive sports event. It was co- hosted by Move Along, the Central New York adaptive sports nonprofit, where I met Jeff Wright, the Executive Director of the group, who introduced me to available adaptive sports includ- ing sled hockey, wheelchair basketball, kayaking, and ultimately “pushrim” (driving a racing wheelchair). Will Rogers once said “If you find yourself in a hole, STOP DIGGING.” A week later, I was introduced to Mark Dipalma, the ED of Sitrin’s adaptive sports program in Utica, NY. Sitrin had a special relationship with the Boilermaker race, one of the largest invitationals for pushrim in the entire U.S. with participants from around the world.
And get this, they had a special deal. People could apply to do the race in a conventional chair, complete it in two hours and 15 minutes or less, and then apply to be rewarded with a rac- ing wheelchair valued at $2,500. I took a flyer, applied, and three days later discovered I had been cho- sen. That’s when my real adaptive sports training journey began. It was terrible at first. My chair was a folding model, very heavy and large. I went a total of four blocks and realized that this was nuts. But I had to give it more time. Several people helped with ideas Later I was loaned a sports chair that I eventually used in the Boilermaker race. I didn’t really have any coaches but I had lots of help— from Move Along and Sitrin, too. I did an enormous amount of training on trails and roads around Central New York but my favored spot was always the Onondaga Lake Park Trail. A very popular trail, with spec- tacular views and kind, encouraging trailgoers.
Known as the “Central Park of Central New York,” Onondaga Lake The Onondaga Lake Park Trail 12 SPRING 2018
AmericanTrails.org
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