Garry Rogers will be participating in Athletics – Distance Running at the Pan Pacific Masters Games
Tallai’s Garry Rogers was a one-time world championships mountain bike competitor who never really liked running, which is curious given the amazing events that have conspired to shape his life over the past five and a half years.
You see, Garry is a bilateral (double lower arm) amputee who has entered four of the toughest middle-distance running events at the 2018 Pan Pacific Masters Games, including Wednesday’s beach mile at Kurrawa.
“As a kid I just hated running, it just wasn’t my thing. The only time I ran was when I was running away from trouble,” Garry told ABC Gold Coast radio on Tuesday.
But all that changed after a near-fatal workplace accident in January 2013.
“I went to work as an electrical linesman on a Monday, just like any other day, and something just went horribly wrong,” Garry said.
“When the accident happened, I was working live on 11,000 volts.
“The doctors told me my good health from mountain biking helped me stay alive.”
Garry’s path to what he now describes as his “running addiction” started when he was in rehabilitation and spied a treadmill in the hospital gym.
“At first they wouldn’t let me go on it.
“I had no coordination; my legs and arms were going everywhere, and I felt like a duck out of water.
“It actually took me a few weeks to get my running motion going well enough for them to let me on it.”
That was a major life-changing moment in a life that was already changing every day.
He went home, bought a treadmill of his own and set a course to compete in that July’s Gold Coast Half Marathon, which was looming fast.
“It was only a matter of weeks away, but I decided that if I could run 21km on the treadmill I would enter,” Garry said.
“I just set my mind to it and I ended up signing up.
“That’s what got me started on my whole running adventure, which is a bit of an addiction now.”
Garry says he hopes his efforts might inspire others to “get out of bed.”
“What I like about it is when I’m out on the road I don’t have a disability.
“It means a lot to have people see me running who might think that if I can do it, it they can get off the lounge and do something too.”
In addition to the beach mile, Garry will also compete in the 2018 Pan Pacific Masters Games 5km road race on Thursday, 4km cross country on Friday and 10.5km trail run on Saturday.
