La Cañada High School math teacher Joey Mearig went back to school on Tuesday as a member of an elite group of athletes that completed the Los Angeles Marathon.
“This will be my first time,” Mearig said before Monday’s marathon. “I will be doing it on a hand cycle in the wheelchair section.”
About eight years ago, Mearig suffered a spinal cord injury from a mountain bicycle accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down and his arms are also partially paralyzed.
Before his accident Mearig biked about three times a week, that athletic discipline did not changed with his disability, he just adjusted the sport. He plays wheelchair rugby and friends are trying to talk him into a triathlon.
“But my swimming skills were so bad before the accident they are just terrible now,” Mearig joked.
But when his father, Bill, told him he wanted to run the marathon Mearig decided to join him.
“My dad wanted to run the race [by the time] he was 50,” Mearig said. “He turned 50, so this is his time.”
Mearig’s wife, Llona, caught marathon fever and joined her husband and father-in-law in the race.
“My wife trained with my dad and they convinced a couple of friends to join,” he said. “They trained for 16 weeks; I did a different type of training not as grueling on my body.”
Llona was injured during training and had to take three weeks off, then he returned to conditioning himself for the race.
The family turned their first marathon run together into a fundraiser.
“We raised some money for World Vision, an African based charity,” Mearig said.
Mearig has been using his hand-cycle for a long time. The cycle was partially paid for through the Challenged Athletes Foundation.
“They have really helped me out,” he said. “A lot of the hand-cycles at the race were purchased by the foundation.”
He had the athletic ability and was comfortable with cycling but still worried a little before the race.
“I am concerned about getting a flat tire,” he said. “[Two weeks ago] was Bike to Work Week. I went from my home in Atwater Village to La Cañada. On the way back [from LCHS] I had a flat tire.”
Mearig said that was a pretty helpless feeling but was lucky he was only about a mile from his home and was able to make it on the damaged tire.
