CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Mike Nishimoto raced yesterday in the 5K Freedom Run through Kailua to benefit the Epilepsy Foundation of Hawaii, with girlfriend Lynda Murakami right behind him.
Athlete beats pain
to race againA paralyzing accident in January
fails to stop racer Mike Nishimoto
Mike Nishimoto has competed in several marathons and triathlons and knows how to push his body to extreme limits.
In January, weeks before he was set to compete in the New Zealand Ironman, Nishimoto took "an easy" late afternoon bicycle ride from Kahala to Hawaii Kai. As he rode up Kealaolu Avenue toward Kalanianaole Highway, the sun was to his left and his legs were just warming up when a bus hit him from behind.
He remembers the crush of pain that seized his entire body as he crashed to the roadway. The pain seemed to enclose him. He couldn't get his breath and remembers calling to a friend: "I can't breathe, I can't breathe."
Yesterday, Nishimoto, 47, pushed his body, parts of which are held together now with rods and screws, to an extreme again. He drove his wheelchair in the 5K Freedom Run through Kailua to benefit the Epilepsy Foundation of Hawaii.
Pushing the only wheelchair in the race, he finished in 57 minutes.
"It took a lot out of me and I'm just totally drained," said Nishimoto after the race. "It was very tough. I didn't expect as many hills. A lot of hills that for a regular runner seem like a slight incline are like a mountain to someone in a wheelchair."
Ann Gebheim, a friend who once trained for marathons with him, said happily: "He's back. Nothing can stop him. He just got home from rehabilitation on Monday and today he is racing like nothing has changed, just the mode of racing is different."
A tired Nishimoto said: "I'm glad I did it. It was a good race for a good cause. There's no use sitting back and not doing it."
Nishimoto, who was dragged under the bus, was told he would be paralyzed and never walk again. He sustained spinal injuries, a lacerated liver, a punctured lung, broken ribs and severe nerve damage to his legs.
He spent the first nine days after the accident on massive amounts of pain killers at the Queen's Medical Center, where they operated on him at least once.
"We were shocked that first night," said Raul Boca of Boca Hawaii which trains athletes for marathons and triathlons. "They said he was paralyzed and would never race again. But he's a tough guy who bounced back quicker than I would."
A Navy man with more than 22 years, Nishimoto, an information systems technician chief, was transferred to Tripler Army Medical Center where he was finally given the news: He would never walk again.
"He was devastated," said Gepheim. "The light just went out of his eyes."
But Nishimoto fought back. Friends said he approached physical therapy with the same disciplined manner he faced different phases in training for a triathlon.
He focused and worked hard. In March, Nishimoto was transferred to a veteran's hospital in Palo Alto, Calif., that specializes in spinal injuries. A few weeks after arriving, he could sit in a wheelchair.
By April 11, with a brace on his left leg, he took his first steps, holding onto parallel bars. By the time he was discharged June 30, he could walk 200 feet with a walker. By next year, doctors say, he may walk unassisted.
More than 20 athletes from Boca Hawaii kept in contact with Nishimoto throughout his recovery by phone and e-mail. Some visited him in Palo Alto.
"He couldn't have gotten where he is without the help of his fellow athletes," said Gepheim, adding, "Now he has to do the physical therapy on his own. If he keeps working, he should be able to walk by next year. If he doesn't, he knows he will revert to a cripple."
Friends say that for Nishimoto, training or running a marathon is about camaraderie and sportsmanship. Fellow athletes are his family.
"If you had trouble in a race, he would stop and help you. He would worry about you and not his time," said Gepheim.
When Julie Meier, another friend and fellow athlete, arrived in Palo Alto to take Nishimoto home to Honolulu, she found he had already completed the applications to participate in the Waikiki Roughwater Swim on Labor Day and in the wheelchair division of the Honolulu Marathon in December.
Nishimoto told her he wanted to race in his regular wheelchair in the July Fourth Freedom Run. Meier, an organizer of the event, told them there was no wheelchair division.
"He just looked at me and opened his eyes like, 'So why can't there be?'" said Meier, 41, who created a wheelchair division.
Meier said, "He just wants to get his life back. He's such an inspiration, whether you have a handicap or not."
Meier said Nishimoto has an attitude that convinces people to do anything. In April 2001, Meier said she didn't know how to swim and that she didn't even like putting her face in the water. Eighteen months later, Nishimoto had her competing and finishing the 2.5-mile Waikiki Roughwater Swim.
Boca, who has known and trained Nishimoto for five years, said he was awed this week when Nishimoto used a walker to walk up to the Palolo pool.
"He came to the pool where I coach," said Boca. "He was walking with a walker and I never thought he would walk again. And then he just jumped in the pool and worked out for an hour. I was so happy."
Boca said the two have already talked about the Honolulu Marathon. He said Nishimoto, who has a medical discharge from the Navy effective July 14, has already found a racing wheelchair. Boca said racing in a wheelchair should have some parallels to bike racing.
"It would be my pleasure and my honor to train him for the marathon," said Boca.
