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BY MARY MARGARET MCEACHERN
TEVE PREFONTAINE, American distance runner and Olympic hopeful, has
inspired countless runners over the years. Determined and gutsy, he had an almost
superhuman ability to push through exhaustion, and then push some more.
Although Prefontaine died tragically at age 24
in an automobile accident in 1975 before reaching his full
potential, he continues to provide motivation.
What set Prefontaine apart was a strength of char-acter,
which, while rare, is exemplified beautifully
in local runner Alecia Williams. Williams, 57, has
come back strong after suffering a shattered femur in
the 2016 Boston Marathon.
An errant water bottle had landed under her foot at
mile 23 of the 26.2-mile race, toppling her and causing
a nasty compound break that was the worst her surgeon
had ever seen. Emergency surgery repaired her shattered
femur, and after five days in a Boston hospital, she came
home and faced the daunting task of weeks of physical
therapy.
After having trained for years leading up to the race
that could have ended her running career, Williams was
starting over. She endured weeks of in-home rehabilita-tion
consisting of simple exercises that felt harder than a
marathon. She then faced four weeks of outpatient therapy,
with progressively more grueling exercises, until the fate-ful
day when she was instructed to walk the length of the
room without assistance.
“I’ve never felt so much fear in my life,” she says.
“What if I can’t? What if I fall? I don’t even remember
HOW to walk!”
Mustering courage, Williams braved that first step.
“It was painful. It was scary. But it was possible,” she says.
“Then I took another step, and another.”
Emotions were hard to handle at first. Learning to walk
again after having run 23 hard miles in stifling conditions,
and knowing that she might lose all the fitness she had
gained over years of training, was demoralizing.
Opposite: Alecia Williams trains on her bike in the Middle
Sound area in August 2019. Right: Williams learns to walk
again in outpatient rehabilitation in May 2016.
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM
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Williams, 57, has come back strong
after suffering a shattered femur in
the 2016 Boston Marathon.
COURTESY ALECIA WILLIAMS