Cerebral Palsy

The second year he entered the Brentwood race, he ran with a friend who was blind, staying one step ahead so the man could guide himself by touching van Vliet's elbow.

"He said 'I've done everything I wanted.

I want to give back to my community,'" Ria van Vliet said of her husband's desire to share his love of physical exercise.

He and Martin have been training for weeks along a paved trail near their homes, logging as much as 5 kilometers two to three times a week.

"If I go slower, he says 'Run, run!

'" van Vliet said, chuckling.

As van Vliet hustled down the path one recent evening, a grinning Martin raised his long arms and made the victory sign.

When her husband slowed to a walk a few minutes later, Ria bent over to wipe Martin's brow.

"Are you sweating yet?

" she joked.

"That's all he talks about every day," said Martin's mother, Pat Linn.

"Every day Paul wants to practice.

He wants to be out more than inside watching TV." So excited is her son about being part of the action that he had copies made of a flier advertising the event and distributed them to neighbors with the invitation to come watch him, Linn said.

Martin will be rolling with one of the best: Van Vliet maintains his edge by working out two hours a day, six days a week.

He's up at 5 a.m.

to run before work, swims durin...

Read more...