Paralympic star seeking historic run
Michael Roeger will occupy a unique niche in his Chevron Houston Marathon debut Sunday. For starters, he will likely be the only runner — certainly among the elites — who’s missing the lower part of his right arm.
“I was surfing with my twin brother Chris and a shark got it,” the 31-year-old Australian said. Wut?
“No, mate,” Roeger said, laughing and admitting he was just joking. His being from Down Under and all, that’s what people expect to hear. Aussie humor. He was, in fact, “born this way,” but the socalled “disability” motivated him as he grew older, leading to what has become an exceptional career as a Paralympian after he first gave cross-country running a
try in high school. And he’s running so strongly at this stage of his career that he’s positioned to do something no athlete has accomplished on Houston’s streets.
Roeger’s mission is to be leaving town Monday having broken his own world record of 2:22.51 — set in London last April and almost four minutes faster than the previous official standard for his Paralympic classification — and having done it, more importantly, with a sub 2:20 time. That threshold holds almost the same cache for a Paralympian as a sub-2:00 would for non — again, quote-unquote — handicapped marathoner. It would also set him up nicely for Tokyo, where the next Paralympic Games will be staged Aug. 25-Sept. 6.
“I’ve been to three Paralympics but never won a gold,” he said. A bronze in the 1,500 meters claimed in Rio De Janeiro in 2016 ended his middle-distance running career. “I stepped up to the marathon after that. I want to be the first Paralympic runner to crack 2:20. That’s my goal and now it’s the perfect time for me to do it, 220 days out from the Tokyo Games. I feel like I’ve had a great few days (of training) here.”
The marathon’s publicist, Muffy King, predicted that Roeger will have a plenty of local folks pulling for him.
“We’ve never had a world record set in any of our races,” King said. “That would definitely be special.”
Particularly in light of what has been happening in Australia, where wildfires have decimated massive swaths of land, killing more than 20 people and countless helpless animals trapped in the historic conflagrations. While Roeger will be running for himself and his fellow Paralympians, he’s also running for his
country. Originally from Langhorne Creek in South Australia, he now lives and trains in the capital city of Canberra.
Because he posted a 1:04.7 half marathon last year — “that gave me a lot of confidence,” he said — he’s optimistic. In his mind, a sub-2:20 is a when, not an if, and he hopes the when happens Sunday. He believes the planets are perfectly aligned, from Houston having a “quick course” to his
wanting to honor his countrymen, especially the legions of exhausted firefighters.
“It’s been pretty scary,” said Roeger, although he was quick to add that no close friends or family members have been directly impacted. “A lot of this has happened because of lightning strikes, but there have been some arsonists, too. They should be locked up and the key thrown away. It was really tough over
Christmas and the new year watching the television and thinking about hard it was for those guys, working with no days off. Running a little marathon Sunday won’t be anything by comparison. I’ll be drawing on that for sure.”
He’s counting on “sitting in there with a group (setting a) 2:15 pace,” which will make beating 2:20 well within the realm of the possible. But, until it has been done, it hasn’t been done.
“I sometimes think people don’t give Paralympians enough credit,” he said, “so, sure, I feel like I’m representing the whole Paralympian community when I race. To me, once you’re at the start line, it doesn’t matter if you’re missing half of an arm, you’re going to put up a helluva fight. I’d like to finish in the top 10 Sunday and surprise a lot of people out there.”