Corp. Casey Owens relaxes with other race participants after the Marine Corps Marathon on Sunday. Owens lost both legs in 2004 during a medical evacuation mission in southern Iraq. (Photo by Grant Slater | MNS)
WASHINGTON – Every marathon participant hits the wall at some point. For Casey Owens, the wall came early.
Climbing the slopes of the Potomac River valley into eastern Washington, D.C., in the first quarter of the Marine Corps Marathon held Sunday, his arms fought him all the way to mile six.
“In that first stretch, your arms start burning and it’s just like, oh, I hope I’m going to make this,” said Owens, a Marine corporal medically retired in 2006.
Owens is more inclined to zip down the snowy slopes in Colorado, Austria or Chile on his single-ski sled than crank his way by hand up the asphalt course in Washington.
“I was thinking to myself that I should have trained harder,” he said.
Owens finished in the middle of the field on Sunday with a time of 2:20. The fastest hand-crank competitor completed the 26-mile trek in 1:23.
An Air Force lieutenant, Jacob Bradosky, took first among males running in the 25th annual marathon while Janet Cherobon led the women’s division.
Owens lost both legs in 2004 during a medical evacuation mission in southern Iraq when his team tripped a land mine while being pursued in a firefight. His recovery lasted more than two years.
The injury occurred during his second deployment to Iraq. Owens enlisted in 2002 and took part in the invasion of Iraq where he made his way from Kuwait to Baghdad and later was stationed in Najaf.
His recovery after the second tour included a battery of surgeries as doctors tried to save as much as possible of his right leg – the more problem-plagued of the two.
In 2006, the Houston native and self-described flatlander took to the slopes for the first time. He traveled out to Colorado and learned how to maneuver his sled down double diamonds, over moguls and in the half pipe.
He trains seven days a week with 15 other disabled athletes in alpine sports under the guidance of Kevin Jardine, head coach of the Paralympic Military and Veterans Alpine Skiing Program.
Owens said he has his sights set on the 2014 Paralympics in Sochi, Russia, when he will have more than five years of competition under his belt.
But his Olympic hopes took a frightening turn in Portillo, Chile, when he “pancaked” in soft snow at the bottom of a hill. The resulting concussion and remnants from his battle wounds kept him off his ski for a year.
Flying down mountains on three continents allows Owens some freedom of movement. Even with prosthetics, he still relies on his wheelchair after four years, because walking long distances causes back problems, he said.
After the marathon Sunday, Owens wheeled around chatting with other competitors at the Semper Fi Fund’s tent. The race-day sun shone down bright and hand-crank wheelchairs littered the lawn.
Owens looked pleased and glanced across the crowded lawn after a morning of grinding up hills.
“I wonder where the beer tent is,” he said.