Alex Zanardi to compete in NYC Marathon

Amputee race car driver Alex Zanardi to compete in NYC Marathon in handcycle category
Posted: Thursday Nov 1, 2007 2:21 PM

NEW YORK (AP) - It started as a joke.
Race car driver Alex Zanardi was chatting with a manager at a pasta manufacturer he endorses about getting involved with the New York City Marathon, for which the company, Barilla, sponsors a prerace dinner. Zanardi, who lost both legs in a horrific crash during a 2001 race, quipped that he could compete in the marathon.

Silence. Then the manager said, "You're crazy.''
To a man who returned to racing in a modified car after his accident, that was enticement, not discouragement.
"Up to that point, I was just joking. When he told me I couldn't do something,'' Zanardi said, "in my head, it's 'You've got to prove it now.'''
Next thing he knew, Zanardi, who had never used a handcycle, found himself with less than a month to prepare to race one 26.2 miles.
He will pedal a bike with his hands along the course Sunday, and not only does he intend to finish, but he hopes to post a fast time.
The 41-year-old Italian won CART championships in 1997 and '98. During a September 2001 race in Germany, Zanardi lost control of his car coming out of the pits and swerved into the path of Alex Tagliani, who hit him at about 200 mph. The impact sliced Zanardi's car in half and left him in a coma for a week.
Two years later, Zanardi returned to complete the final 12 laps he never finished. He now competes in the World Touring Car Championship.
Despite Zanardi's vow to the Barilla manager in early September, he faced some obstacles. First he had to enter - Barilla was able to get him in at the last minute. The next obstacle was finding a handcycle.
A chance meeting four years earlier provided the solution. Zanardi and another driver had been angling for the same handicapped parking space. When Zanardi got out of his car, the other man recognized him and Zanardi wound up with the business card of Vittorio Podesta, a paraplegic who went on to finish second in the handcycle category at last year's NYC Marathon.
So when Zanardi needed a handcycle, he called Podesta, who put him in touch with a man in Milan looking to sell one. Zanardi picked up his new bike while competing nearby Oct. 6.
The next day, he took it for a spin. Ever the optimist, he decided to pedal 18 miles along the Po River then turn around and head back.
Three miles into the return trip, he'd had enough.
"But I still had to do the other 15 to get back to the car,'' he said with a chuckle in a phone interview Monday. "I had no choice. I felt very stupid.''
By the end of his third workout, though, he felt fresh enough to do even more. His arms had grown strong through the necessities of life with prosthetic legs. He must rely on his upper body to sit down and stand up and to walk with the help of a cane.
Zanardi joked that "I've become like the Incredible Hulk a little bit - the only thing is I'm not green.
"The muscles were already in place. They had to be educated to move in a slightly different way.''
Citing superstition, Zanardi didn't reveal the times he has clocked in training. He did say he wants to finish somewhere in the range of 1 hour, 45 minutes to 1 hour, 50 minutes. In 2006, 17 entrants in the handcycle category went faster than 1:50. The winning time was 1:25.
Always competitive, he speculated that maybe he'll keep training and try to win next year. At the very least, he plans to keep using his handcycle.
That first time he went for a ride, under a dazzling blue sky, Zanardi relished a sensation he had so missed: his heart pounding faster and faster as only an aerobic workout can make it. After his accident, aerobic exercise was one activity difficult to recapture.
Once an avid runner, Zanardi will enter his first marathon sitting down and on three wheels. He accepted the challenge to make a statement to himself, not the world, but he knows how others have been touched by his story.
"If along the way, by things I do, people at home say, 'Look at this guy with no legs enjoying this, smiling, completing 42 kilometers with a funny bicycle; at least I could go down to the grocery store and buy a couple apples,''' Zanardi said. "I'm proud to be an inspiration, but I'd be completely wrong to do it to send a message.''