The Courier-Journal (Louisville)
A neck injury followed by a long COVID-19 diagnosis
Queen was counting his blessings in 2019 when he encountered another setback. He had finished another 26-mile marathon when the pain in his neck became so unbearable he was forced to seek medical attention, again.
“For some reason, my C3-C7 vertebrae were compressed,” Queen said. “I had spinal surgery and had to stop exercising to protect the healing in my neck. I gained back a lot of weight.”
When he was cleared to run, he couldn’t make it more than 2 miles without considerable effort. Again, he was out of shape but determined to overcome his most recent setback.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything.
Queen was homeschooling his four children during the early days of the pandemic when schools were being taught online. His wife was working full time at Norton Healthcare, and the family was being careful to isolate to protect their health.
In January of 2021, when the world was starting to reopen and we were all being encouraged to continue wearing masks until a vaccine was released, Queen took his daughter to a club volleyball tournament in another state.
“I was wearing a mask; my daughter’s
“My goal was never to be fast, it was to set the goal and finish. I want to be an example to my kids that when you try your hardest, no matter what the outcome, it equals success.”
about running
Corey Queen
team played wearing masks, but the other team and their parents did not wear masks,” Queen said. “I called my wife and half joking said, ‘If I get COVID, we’ll know where it came from.’”
Five days later, Queen, his wife, and their daughter woke up with high fevers. Although his daughter and wife recovered quickly, Queen got sicker.
“I tried not to let it show but I was terrified for Corey,” remembers Damary Queen.
After weeks with a 103 temperature, a deflated lung and take-home oxygen, Queen was diagnosed with long COVID. With that, he joined the 6.9% of adults who ever had long COVID and 3.4% of adults suffering from long COVID, according to 2022 data from the CDC.
“It was such an effort just to get out of bed and into the shower I knew that if I survived I would never take my health for granted,” he said.
Although his care through the Norton Healthcare Long-term COVID program has been what he calls “amazing,” Queen said he continues to suffer from asthma and debilitating migraines. The marathon runner now uses an inhaler to help him breathe and for his headaches, receives 30 injections of Botox in his head, neck, and face every 90 days to relieve the pain.
As a result of his ongoing battle with COVID-19, Queen gained weight and lost all of his fitness gains. Essentially Queen found himself starting from the bottom,
Why, for him, ‘running is a beautiful metaphor for life’
After six months of inactivity, “I was now wearing size 4X t-shirts and my knees started to really hurt because my body was not used to carrying so much body fat,” Queen said. “I knew I had to do something ... but I felt like I was never going to be able to catch up to it on my own.”
So, Queen went to Norton Healthcare Weight Management where he underwent Bariatric surgery.
“Essentially they remove 90% of your stomach,” he said. “You go through a lot of screenings, (and) classes to learn about healthy nutrition and fitness and I can use those experts and classes for the rest of my life.”
Since his surgery in 2022, Queen’s transformation has been significant. Having once topped the scale at close to 300 pounds, today he weighs 164 pounds. And yes, he’s back running and rising every morning at 3 a.m. He’s also discovered a new career as a full-time employee at Fleet Feet, a local running store.
“I have the opportunity to share my story with customers who might be experiencing setbacks,” Queen said. “And who would have thought that at 51 years old, I would have abs and am running fast enough that I am winning my age group in local races.”
In July, he competed in his first ultramarathon, an eight-hour endurance race where he clocked in 32 slow and steady miles.
“Running is a beautiful metaphor for life,” he reflects. “I may run some miles fast and some miles slow but it’s always going to be one foot forward and another foot forward and as long as I keep giving my best effort, no matter if it’s fast or slow, I will get to the finish.”
People love success stories but don’t always get to see the grit behind them. Queen could have walked out of his doctor’s office in 2011 and never suffered through that first miserable quarter of a mile run.
He could have become complacent after his heart attack or spinal surgery and he had every right to blame the COVID-19 virus on his recent physical setbacks.
He could have given up, but that is not how Corey Queen “The Comeback King” chooses to live his life.
“I refuse to come this far and be stagnant and lazily content,” he said. “I am still here, standing and I am thriving. So the last thing I am going to do is waste a blessing.”