Dear Race Directors,
We are not another division to be welcomed to your race. We are not a nuisance to accommodate. We are not special guests. We are not a complication to add in. We are not a separate list of logistics.
We are athletes.
Most wheelchair athletes began training, playing, and participating after believing that sports were not or no longer available to them. It is a devastating blow when a medical professional very seriously looks you in the eye and tells you that you cannot do something you have always done or wanted to do. No matter how expected those words are. It hurts even more when friends, family, and society backs that up with concern that you are holding onto to those hopes. However, there is pure joy in finding that you can.. the sport may look and feel a bit different than you think, but you are still moving forward.
My chosen activity was running. It started as a rebellion against all the things I was told I could not or should not do with a knee that was almost four times older than the rest of me. And I fell in love with it all. The training, the races, the adventures, my health, the cross training, and most of all, the community... the friends I made in the process, the people I met along the way. Running and being active became a part of who I was. I longed to go to more races just to prove I could finish and to make more friends, even it was only for that day.
Eight years of clicking that register button with the only questions being if I could finish and how long it would take hits me every time I see a new race I would like to participate in. You see, even if I only have an interest in a race, I must email you. I have to ask about the course. I have to ask if there have been others like me. I have to ask about safety.
I have to ask if I can participate.
And more often than not, I am met with hesitation due to inexperience with wheelchair athletes. Concern is expressed, but most of the time I am welcomed to the race after a discussion. I have only been denied access to a few races so far. And that brings me to my biggest hope; please put the information on your websites. Just like everyone else, I just want to know if I am welcome, that you want me there.... or that your course will not work for me so I can continue on to the next interesting race rather than wait for an answer to my messages. A simple statement saying wheelchairs are welcome, add wheelchairs to the list of divisions, write a paragraph in your FAQ section, something that answers one simple question; Can I participate with a wheelchair?
Sincerely,
A Wheelchair Athlete
