Uphill battle
Edmond man lunges Mount Scott to help dad with cancer
EDMOND — No physical challenge is too much of an obstacle for Cody Wilburn when it comes to helping his father, Coy Wilburn, who has cancer.
The 32-year-old Edmond fitness specialist recently took on the 2,464-foot Mount Scott near Lawton to help raise funds and awareness for Coy Wilburn, 49, and did it in a three-mile roadway lunge.
A lunge is a lower body exercise where one leg is positioned forward with knee bent and foot flat on the ground while the other leg is positioned behind.
Coy Wilburn, a western Oklahoma farmer, has had four surgeries since his brain cancer diagnosis. Three of them were this year.
Cody Wilburn, who is a personal trainer, said his father has glioblastoma, an aggressive form of cancer. He said he needs physical therapy after a recent procedure, and it will cost about $50,000.
With limited resources through Medicaid, Cody Wilburn knew he had to do something. In April, he came up with the idea of lunging Mount Scott. He chose Father’s Day to attempt his Mount Scott feat. “It was an absolutely beautiful day for it,” he said.
Because the lunge puts a great deal of stress on his body, he had a nurse and others keeping a close eye on him. The trek up Mount Scott required nearly 20,000 steps. This is how Cody described how his body felt after the lunge.
“Severe cramps in the quads and glutes, blistered feet, and my toenails smashed into my toes. But that’s all petty stuff. Happy to go through such small things in honor of my dad’s fight against cancer.”
The event drew a lot of interest on Facebook as it was streamed live.
“We were hoping to have 1,000 views,” Cody Wilburn said. “We wound up with 60,000, so far.”
Jake Johnson followed Cody every step of the way to film the climb.
“This has been an incredibly humbling experience,” Johnson said. “I was struggling to read out loud the hundreds of positive comments flooding in from the 803 live feed viewers on Facebook.”
He remembers the last few steps made during the lunge. “Cody’s legs were locking up from cramps, and I prayed God could bring relief to his quads so he could finish,” Johnson said.
Cody Wilburn has applied to Guinness World Records for his Father’s Day lunge. He hopes the exposure will help the GoFundMe page he’s set up for his father. “It’s accessible by logging onto coyup. com,” he said. “It’s tough to watch a loved one fight something like this. I knew I had to do something.”