Beaver, Oregon's Jimmy Fox joins rimchair racing elite at Bloomsday in Spokane

BY MICHAEL O'BRIEN

OMED: Michael reigns in a stately manner behind the sports desk of the Tillamook Headlight Herald   Famed far and wide for the erudite  verisimilitude of his rather granular expostulatory verbosity, in this essay, he deftly sandpapers into non-existence the idea that people without legs must remain in the slow lane of life, moving at the pace of a yawn.  When this subject of Mike's shifts his wheelchair into high gear, human-powered speed enters a new dimension.  Human courage comes out looking pretty good, as well.  (Photo: Publicity shot of Mike O'Brien during his days in Hollywood.) 

        In the film Bull Durham, the veteran baseball player Crash Davis, played by Kevin Costner, describes the experience of the major leagues ("the show") to a bus full of reverent young minor leaguers, hanging on his every word --- "I was in the show for 21 days, and it was the best 21 days of my life. In the show, you never handle your own luggage, they use white balls for batting practice, the ball parks are like cathedrals, the hotels have room service, and the women are all beautiful and smart." 
        "But," concludes Davis, "they throw you these unbelievable curve balls."

        This May 2nd through 4th, Beaver, Oregon rimchair racer Jimmy Fox got a well-earned taste of the show, in his continuing career as a distance racer, at the Spokane Lilac Bloomsday Road Race. An event that draws some 50,000 partiipants, including 60 of the world's best rimchair racers, in the largest such competition if not in the entire United States, at least in the West. 
        And his experience left a favorable taste.
        If you haven't met Fox, either by coming upon him just before dawn, as he trains on the backstreets of Tillamook in his flashy yellow racing chair "Apollo," or by stopping in at the Fox Grocery in Beaver, where he is the proprietor,  believe that his journey to the Bloomsday event has been compelling. 

(Chair jockeys in Portland, ready to race.)

        Fox was born with osteogenis imperfecta. In layman's terms he lacked a gene that regulates the hardness of bones. As a youth, Fox endured 24 operations before he was 18. Realizing by that age, his bones were as hard as they were going to get, Fox asked to have his legs removed.
        "It was the right move. Things I couldn't do before were attainable without my legs. I could get around without the pain and generally get on with my life." As the fatality rate of the disorder is one in four, Fox considers himself fortunate.  "I've managed to accomplish and see quite a lot."

        That may be an understatement. Fox rolled across the United States in 1987, making the journey in three months. His intent was to bring attention to the fact that people with his kind of disability have the opportunity to have a fulfilling life. He brought that message to kids at Shriners Children's Hospitals along the way. 
        Fox began racing in regional distance events in 1999. In many of his races over the past few years, he has been the only rimchair, or one of few in the race. He has regularly competed in the Portland Marathon, the Race for the Roses and several half-marathons in the Pacific Northwest. The competition has been a lot of the same faces and the courtesy extended rimchair racers varies from race to race. One thing is certain ----nothing has been like Bloomsday.

        Bloomsday is a certified rimchair course and many of the best rimchair athletes in the world are there. There are five divisions for rimchairs. Men's Open, Women's Open, Masters, T-1 Quad and T-2 Quad. Fox received his invite to compete in the Men's Open, where prize money from $150 (eighth place) to $2,000 (winner) was available. 

        On May 2, Fox arrived at the Doubletree Inn in Spokane, where a complimentary room awaited him. This courtesy was extended to each rimchair racer and elite runner for all three nights. Fox had a roommate, Steve Hess of Los Angeles, whose airfare, like Fox's travel, was paid for. A hospitality room and  therapy room were open from noon on Friday, through the weekend, staffed by registered therapists, for invited athletes, such as Fox.  The hotel had a dedicated elevator for rimchair athletes only, ensuring they did not miss functions, such as brunch/press conferences and a guided course tour for all Bloomsday first-timers on Saturday. Saturday was also the time of the prolog, where all rimchair athletes race one kilometer for race seeding the next day. 

   After an invited-athlete dinner, preceded by a social hour, the next day's race lay ahead. There was much interaction with the other racers and Fox sat at the same table as Saul Mendoza, a multiple winner of Bloomsday and considered the fastest racer on the North and South American continent. Also at the table was Jimbo Boyd, a flamboyant and notorious racer from Atlanta, GA. , who told horror stories about crashes on the dreaded "Doomsday Hill," which the racers would face the next day. "I realized Jimbo was trying to psyche us out, but after seeing the course, he had me spooked," said Fox.
   Race day arrived with a tech inspection at 7:30 a.m. and by 8:15, the wheelers were heading into the closed down streets of Spokane. "When we left the hotel and started the four or five blocks through the empty streets to the starting line as a group, our wheels made a 'thrumming' in the canyons of concrete of the downtown, it was an awesome feeling," Fox said. "We rolled through the street like proud gladiators and were received generously by the crowd on hand."

   The race started and Fox concentrated on playing his game, not anyone else's. Some chairs passed him, he passed some others and before he knew it, he was rolling downhill at 25 miles-an-hour in Apollo. One female racer hit some wet pavement, slid off the course and rolled over, and picked up some scrapes and bruises. Fox maintained his focus and was able to complete the race unscathed, climb Doomsday Hill and finish the 12k/7.46 mile race in 50 minutes and 34 seconds, placing 17th out of 20 in the Men's Open division and somewhere in the middle of the 60 rimchair entries. Saul Mendoza finished it in 25 minutes and 25 seconds, averaging over 16 mph, in Fox's estimation. 

   "I cannot tell you what a thrill it was to race in Bloomsday," said Fox, who is used to winning. "Win or lose, you spend time with dedicated men and women in wheelchairs. They showed me what it was all about. In the prolog, there was a little girl, no bigger than an average 6-year-old, and she was out there attacking it, without fear. It nearly brought tears to my eyes to see the guts she had climbing those hills. I'll never forget it. I'm no inspiration in comparison to the heart of that little girl."
   "We all had different goals and lives," added Fox. "Yet, we shared that one weekend of friendship and camaraderie that is unlike any other race known by any of the participants. No other race in the world will pay your traveling expenses, put you in a nice hotel, with a 24-hour hospitality room catered constantly, and a therapy room with massages given all day. Add to that the meals and brunches and bus tours?..it was awesome. I can't wait till next year."

   Fox plans on traveling a little more next year and seeking the races that offer prize money and more competition. His Portland Marathon adversary and friend Jerry Martin, who is 55, told Fox that the Portland Marathon quit offering prize money for rimchair athletes, so many of the racers quit coming. "Maybe someone can talk some sense into them, it would add a lot to Portland's reputation among the sport."
   Fox and his roommate Steve Hess found that each had spent much of their childhoods in Shriners Hospitals, Fox in Portland and Hess in Los Angeles. "We reminisced about that some. I guess there's a Shriners Children's Hospital in Spokane. Perhaps we'll visit it next year, take our racers and our gear."
   "The thought that I might influence one little kid to try to race is very appealing," said Fox.

© 2003 Michael O'Brien