Why amazing Marko Cheseto is an inspiration to us all

This week, I dedicate this space to the amazing Marko Cheseto.

On Sunday, Cheseto completed the TCS New York City Marathon in two hours, 52 minutes and 33 seconds.

This was an unbelievable time considering the 35-year-old Cheseto’s condition.

He is a below the knee amputee, having lost both feet in a 2011 Alaska tragedy precipitated by severe depression, a story we revisited in the Lifestyle magazine section of last weekend’s Sunday Nation.

Cheseto’s massive comeback from tragedy is a lesson to the physically challenged that, as the cliché goes, disability is not inability.

Having travelled to the USA on a track scholarship 10 years ago, Cheseto dominated distance running, broke collegiate records and was a cross country superstar at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

He had a bright running career ahead of him as a key member of the university’s track and field team, the “Seawolves,” for whom he won several accolades in cross country running and in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres on the track, named the Western Region’s Male Athlete of the Year twice in 2009 and 2010.

Also, majoring in nursing and nutrition meant that he had a well thought-out, post-career fallback plan.

OVERCOME

But the 2011 tragedy saw him lose both his legs through severe frostbite.

He didn’t lose hope.

And on Sunday, he demonstrated man’s ability to overcome adversity by crossing the finish line at Central Park on his debut, becoming the world’s fastest ever below-the-knee amputee marathon runner.

His sub-three hour finish would qualify as a national record for able-bodied athletes in several nations, including Liberia, Equatorial Guinea and Micronesia. And he says he’s still not in good shape!

The 2:52:33 is only just getting started.

“It’s good to run your first marathon when you are not in good shape because that way you have a reference point and you can continue to break your own records,” he told me.

Cheseto offers encouragement to physically challenged athletes.

“Disability is not inability. The greatest disability is your thoughts, because it’s whatever you are thinking that will either enable you to prosper or make it difficult to achieve whatever you set out to achieve.”

Having moved from the freezing conditions of Alaska to the warmth of Orlando in “Sunshine State” Florida just last month, Cheseto has greater things lined up in his amazing story.

“In Alaska, I wasn’t able to train all year round in Orlando, there’s no snow and there’s ‘summer forever’ so my training is gonna improve because I will be training for the whole year not like in Alaska where it was winter half the time and even in the summer, the weather wasn’t conducive enough for training.”

Another piece of advise Cheseto offers to challenged athletes is self-belief.

“Believe in yourself. You are your first supporter. Keep doing what you are doing well and one day it will be a cumulative success.

“You can’t just wake up one day and say you’re gonna be great. You have to build your foundation and keep doing it. The results might not come straight away, but, in the long run, you will get there.”

To compliment Cheseto’s success story is the impressive resolve by a group of Kenyan recreational runners who also travelled to New York City and crossed the finish line at Central Park on Sunday unscathed.

They included Edward Mungai (4:33:39), Rebecca Mbithi (4:47:22), Avani Shah (4:54:19), Purity Chege (4:02:43), Timothy Macharia (3:13:05), Daisy Owuor Ajima (4:47:22) and Anthony Munyi who did remarkably well to self-finance their trip to America and complete the world’s biggest marathon, underscoring the power of sport.

They are an encouragement to other Kenyans to take up active lifestyles, save up, travel the world and, most importantly, keep the country’s image high up there.

Indeed, a wake-up call and an indictment to some of us pub crawlers and lazy bones who can hardly attack two flights of stairs without summoning a pit stop to gasp for breath.

Well done folks!