As humans, we take simple things like walking for granted. Imagine one day your life changes forever and you have a choice to make: To stay down or to build yourself back brick by brick, one step at a time.
This is the story of retired U.S. Army Master Sergeant Cedric King.
The Day Everything Changed…
On July 25, 2012, during his third deployment, King’s platoon conducted a reconnaissance of a possible explosives distributor in an Afghan village. As they approached the target, they fell under machine gun fire.
Once the firefight ended, King proceeded forward, only to step on a pressure plate improvised explosive device (IED). The blast lifted him from his feet. At that moment, King wondered if he would ever see his wife and two daughters again.
He awoke eight days later back in the United States to find his mother and wife at his bedside. He had sustained disfigurement on his right hand and both of his legs were amputated. He said the news of his legs being blown off didn’t feel real.
“What do you mean my legs got blown off my body a week ago? I’ve been in a coma, and now you’re telling me I’m going to live the rest of my life as a double amputee. It doesn’t even come up on your radar that’s even a possibility for your life,” he said.
Once he began recovering, he said it was like starting all over and relearning how to walk.
“You got to start all over as if you were a toddler. It’s not because you don’t have the muscle, it’s just you’re using your new equipment and I was using my old mentality with the new equipment and that doesn’t work,” he said. “I was holding onto these canes and bars taking these steps feeling like, ‘if it’s hard now, imagine how running might be.’”
Not only did he have to relearn how to walk, but he also talked about how hard it was to overcome how bad it the pain was with every step.
“The gate to getting back to something isn’t a clear path, it’s you going through the pain of learning to adapt. You must accept you’re going to fall four or five times a day,” he said.
He also said the real gift is for you to be confronted with how difficult the journey is going to be. A decision, he says, must be made.
Rising from the ashes: Marathon Runner
King said he needed a team when he became a double amputee, which was his wife, two daughters, and family as a support system. The three key things to his recovery, King says, were a military mindset, his upbringing and faith, and his family.
“My family was my way of finding out who I was again,” he said.
Ironically, King’s mother challenged him to run a 5K when he recovered and he took the challenge, starting a 12-year journey. While recovering, Cedric completed his college degree and, 21 months after the accident, ran his first Boston Marathon.
He began running while in the United States Army, but said it was because he had to, not because he wanted to. He runs now because it fulfills him.
“Back then I was doing it because I was being told to, but since I started doing marathons, it’s been because I enjoy doing it and want to push myself,” he said.
After 26 marathons, King says he loves running so much because it’s him going against a voice on the inside that says, ‘Let’s take a break’ or ‘Let’s train’, and not using excuses to not finish.
“I have every excuse not to finish, but I’m going to keep going and it makes it easier in my life. When life gets tough, I go back to those times when I was on mile 2223 and had to keep going,” he said.
Additionally, King says running mainly is about mental toughness more than actual brute strength and that’s where the real battle begins. He said your legs are the most powerful part of the swimming process, but since he doesn’t have that, he must find other means to compensate.
“It’s scary sometimes because when you’re in a triathlon, it’s like you’re in a bar fight having 100 people swimming and you getting punched or they swim over you, and it’s nothing personal,” he said. “You gotta just keep going and that’s part of the experience.”
For his training, he said he can’t train physically, but mentally as well. The way he does this is by making one small decision in the morning, which is making it to the trailhead. This turns into another decision by making sure he has everything he needs and then starting slow.
“Start easy and by doing those three simple things, it takes out all of the anxiety, frustration, and intimidation,” he said. “Normally once I do those things by the time I get to mile 10, everything is taken care of, I’m already in my groove.”
As far as nutrition, King says he ensures he takes his food gels in the next five miles. With this, King says it helps to understand life; if he can get to mile five, that means he can also get to mile six, seven, etc.
All he could think about while recovering is being able to run, even without the prosthetics, King said once he got them, he was out of there. However, he realized he needed to be held back a little so he could “stoke the fire” and become more energized.
King said he received many opportunities and resources from running with Team Abbott and Achilles International, who provide guide runners that run alongside King, carrying his nutrition and spare parts for his prosthetics. However, what kept him pushing was before all those opportunities came about, which is could he put one foot in front of the other.
“All I knew was I didn’t want to go back to that hospital bed and that was enough to help me push past the pain,” he said. “I hope that people will understand that to keep moving, you don’t need a coach, you don’t need money, you just got to decide.”
King recently ran his 26th marathon in Tokyo with a time of six hours and one minute, and joined 115 Team Abbott runners in the marathon.
Out of all the 26 marathons he’s run, King says Tokyo was his favorite due to the experience. However, New York and London were honorable mentions because of the crowds. His run in New York 2019, felt like he had trained so much, and it was the first time he had run that far without any issues. He ran in Chicago last year and says it was the fastest he ever ran.
“It’s hard to beat New York though because when you witness the energy coming off the bridge, it’s phenomenal, but Tokyo was the best experience overall,” he said.
The Art of Starting Over
Since his injury, King has earned numerous medals and awards, ran 26 marathons, and climbed mountains. He and his family are enjoying the stability that the custom features in their specially adapted smart home provide.
King says he’s been sharing his story of resilience and recovery for years and says it’s important for veterans and their families to understand they are not alone.
Outside of running, King is both a motivational speaker and author.
His first book, “The Making Point”, was published in 2019 and is a chronicle from the moment he stepped on the bomb and all the listens he’s learned since. Lessons include learning how to swim without legs, lessons of walking and falling, and how it became a metaphor for living life.
“If you’re going to learn how to walk again, you have to be okay with making mistakes,” he said.
He just finished his new book two nights ago and has a working title of “Conquer You”, but nothing is set in stone yet.
He also works with the Semper Fi & America’s Fund, a nonprofit that supports combat-wounded veterans and their families. It’s the same organization that helped him during some of his most difficult times.
As far as advice, King says it’s easy to give up sometimes when you feel like you want to, but how he got out of that mindset, was to tap into his faith.
“When you really feel down or like you want to quit, tap into your faith. At my lowest moment, I felt like I didn’t have anything but God, and it didn’t matter, I still had my life, I was still alive, but I felt like I had nothing left but God,” he said.
He also said even when things felt hopeless with his recovery, he believed God was not going to leave him in that condition forever feeling defeated.
When people hear his story, King says he wants people to give their relationship with God a try with no expectations, no ulterior motives, just open your heart to him and give him a shot.
“A lot of people say, I’ll give God an expectation if I give God a chance, but it’s got to be like this, this, this, no, give God a chance with no expectations on what the next day or two or year will be,” he said.
As far as what’s next for King, he says he plans to compete in his first 100-mile race in Georgia in July.
For more information, visit https://www.garysinisefoundation.org/specially-adapted-smart-homes/cedric-king.
