Miles of Achievement

On a cold October morning, wheelers and handcyclists lined up in front of Comerica Park for the start of the Wright & Filippis Disabilities Division of the Detroit Free Press Marathon. The top female finishers had times of 2:38 in the wheeler division, and 1:53 in the handcycle division. The top male times were 1:41 for wheelers and 1:17 for handcyclists.

Wright & Filippis is also proud to have two employees, Dawn Ruiz, manager of the Ann Arbor facility, and Ken Eick, Prosthetic Manager in Rochester Hills, participating in the relay and marathon portions of the race. Their stories are below.

Shut up and Enjoy the Race
By Ken Eick

Ken and Sherri Eick cross
the finish line in Ford Field.
For my 2003 New Year's resolution, I decided to challenge myself by running the Detroit Free Press Marathon. I searched the internet and found a 4-month training program for a first-time marathon runner. This program, designed for a person who is already running 15-20 miles per week, starts with running five days a week, three to five miles per day.
Each week, the miles per day increase gradually, with one long run every Sunday. Three weeks before the race, you start reducing the miles to allow your body to prepare for the big day.

I decided not to tell anyone about my goal, except for my wife (who thought I was crazy), and a few close friends. But as the training started, my excitement increased and so did the number of people who knew I was preparing to run. As it turned out, involving others in the race preparation not only helped to keep me motivated during training, but it also gave me lots of people to share my success with. I'd like to give special thanks to Bob Yeomans for all of his enthusiasm and good advice, which even included an offer to run the last part of the race with me if I didn't have anyone to run with. Bob has been in a total of 26 marathons and his knowledge and experience has been greatly appreciated!

Shortly after my training started, my wife who is as competitive as I am, decided to run the marathon with me. This made the experience even more memorable - especially at mile 11 when I asked her if she wanted me to carry her running jersey and she said, "I'll tell you when I get warm," in a tone that told me that she was tired and I should just shut up, enjoy the race, and only speak when spoken to.

The day of the race was a bit cold, but otherwise perfect with sunshine, no wind, and a large crowd cheering us on to a 4-hour, 7-minute finish at Ford Field. I was amazed at the number of volunteers, including many Wright & Filippis employees, who came out on a cold October morning just to help us achieve our goals.

That night, after nursing my two lost toenails and sore knee, I went up to say goodnight to the kids. While talking with my seven-year-old son, he said, "Dad, the wheelchair people beat you today, didn't they?"

I said, "Yes, they can go almost 40 mph down the hills."

He then said, "Mrs. Orlowski (his 2nd grade teacher) beat you today, didn't she?"

"Yes, she is a fast runner and she is ten years younger than me," I replied.

Desperately seeking validation for my accomplishment, I asked if I had shown him the medal I received for participating in the race. He said, "Yes dad, you showed me already. Doesn't everyone get one when they race?"

I told them they did and went downstairs to nurse my toenails and my ego.


Quite an Experience
By Dawn Ruiz

This past October, I participated in the Detroit Free Press Marathon. I participated in the 5k race last year, but this year was different. My husband belongs to a relay team that runs in the marathon every year - they're all Ford employees and their team is called the "Turbo Runners." They were short a runner this year so I offered to be part of their team. Normally, they run in the Master division due to the fact that they are all "old" (over 45). Because I am not old, the team had to run in the "younger" Open division. In the past, the Turbo Runners have finished in the top five of their division, but now that we were competing in a different division, it put more pressure on both the team and me!

It was a beautiful, but very cold, morning. I had to wait about two hours outside for my teammate to hand off to me. While I was waiting, I struggled with the dilemma of what to wear to run in. I layered my clothing and didn't know if I should keep my sweatshirt and running pants on or just wear my t-shirt and shorts. Before I knew it, my teammate was running towards me and it was my turn.

I had the 3.3 mile portion of the race and was fortunate to have the stretch that went through Indian Village. It is an old neighborhood and the people who lived there were all outside encouraging the runners to push on to the finish line. Unfortunately, I made the wrong decision to keep my sweatshirt and running pants on. I was getting too warm and had a hard time catching my breath - I never thought I would make it to the hand-off point.

As I turned the last corner, two of my teammates who already ran their portion of the race, met me and ran the last block with me. I handed off to my husband who ran the last leg of the race. We all met him at the entrance to Ford Field and ran into the field together as a team. Our finishing time was 3 hours, 37 minutes, which put the Turbo Runners in 29th place out of 147 relay teams. It was quite an experience.