Greg Street wants to win the Boston Marathon. Not just his division, but the whole thing.
Street will compete in the wheelchair division, but his sights are set much higher."I mean (win it) overall; I mean beat everybody," he said.
Street, a 21-year-old from Lindon, is confined to a wheelchair. But he'll never be confined beyond that.
For the past five years Street has covered the streets from American Fork to Provo as he trains for races. He has done 5K and 10K races before, taking second in the wheelchair division of the Freedom Festival 10K run.
The next step toward the Boston Marathon is to compete in the St. George Marathon in October.
But one thing is blocking Street's road to marathon success. A racing chair.
He needs a lightweight, three-wheeled chair designed for racing. While Street can overcome the physical obstacles to preparing for a marathon, he has not been able to surmount the $2,112 that stands between him and his new chair.
A racing wheelchair will cost Street $2,300 dollars. Street has $188 so far. What he does have has been donated to a trust fund in his name at the First Security bank in Lindon. Street is confident he'll have the needed money when the time comes, especially since the trust fund has only been open for two weeks.
To help with the funds, Gene Hockenbury has volunteered to bicycle approximately 100 miles through Salt Lake and Utah counties on Aug. 28, raising money by the mile.
And while the finances are being worked out, Street will continue working out.
"I've been training hard now for the past four months," he said.
Training hard means exactly that. Street spends approximately five hours a day, seven days a week preparing for his next challenge - his first-ever marathon.
Street rides between eight and 16 miles a day as he prepares his body for the grueling effects of covering 26 miles, 385 yards at once. His highest mileage so far has been 20-22 miles.
"A lot more training is involved" in a marathon as compared to the 5K or 10K races, Street said. "You have to be dedicated and committed."
Street also works out two or three times a week at the Spa Fitness center.
Street was born with spina bifida, an inherited defect that leaves the spinal cord unprotected by the vertebrae. It also left him paralyzed from the waist down.
Because of that, Street's legs were amputated when he was a child.
"They were just in the way," he said. His right leg was amputated when he was 9, the left when he was 14.
"I don't know why I waited so long," Street said.
Talking with Street, it's easy to forget he's in a wheelchair. He's candid about what others would term a handicap and quick with a smile.
"You gotta deal with what life gives you," he said. "Why be bitter?"
That means doing everything for himself, and racing is just an extension of that independence.
Winning a marathon will prove to people that he can do whatever he wants and that he doesn't need pity, Street said.
But first he must win the financial battle for a new chair. Because without the chair, he'll never win the Boston Marathon.
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Donations
Those interested in the bike-a-thon can call 376-8559 to make pledges. A Greg Street Marathon Fund has been established at the Lindon First Security Bank.