James King
  

James came to the Central Park a day before the 2006 NYC Marathon at the Achilles Team meeting to get his hand cycle and make sure it was adjusted for the race.
James King and Dick Traum - the founder and the President of the Achilles Track Club unload hand cycles from the van at sunrize of the chilly Marathon morning. Dick knows this is James's first marathon and gives him advices for the race. Pentagon Parking Lot, Marine Corps Marathon, Washington, DC, 2006.
Achilles members help James tune his hand cycle before the Marine Corps Marathon 2006 in Washington DC. Early morning, Pentagon Parking lot.
James is talking to Beth, who is trying to keep herself warm in the car on a chilly morning of the 2006 MCM Marathon.
James King is trying his hand cycle with the first rays of sun on a chilly morning of the 2006 MCM Marathon.
James and Beth are at the Pentagon parking lot at the early morning before the MCM marathon. James smokes and his friends were joking trying to figure out how many cigarettes he will smoke during the race.
James and Beth are on a bus to NY. They didn't get any sleep the night before and James is catching up on his nap time on a bus.
James is at the breakfast table at the Soldiers' Sailors' Marines and Airmens's club in NY. NYC Firefighters and Achilles members will take athletes to the Central Park to assign hand cycles and get a group photo. http://www.ssmaclub.org/
James is in the NYFD truck with NY Firefighters that volonteered to transport Achilles athletes across the city during the Marathon weekend. James is admiring firefighter's driving style in Manhatten and admits that the only way he would be able to drive in this city would be in a military Humvee with a 50mm on top.

U.S. Marine, James King, was wounded in Iraq. With his knee and shin shattered, infection set in around the shrapnel wounds, his leg had to be amputated. Sgt. King spent five days in Germany in a drug-induced coma before being flown back to the United States.  James went through multiple operations in the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He can only hear with one ear.

 

James met his fiance Beth in the hospital. He said that if he ever met that guy who remotely detonated the car loaded with explosives in Iraq, which took the lives of four Marines and James's leg, James would first shake this person's hand and thank him for the chance of meeting Beth. Then James said he would revenge for the Marines that died in the blast.

 

James joined the Freedom Team of Wounded Veterans - program run by Mary Bryant from the Achilles Track Club. He completed his first Marathon on a hand cycle in October - Marine Corps Marathon in Washington DC. A week after James completed the NYC 2006 Marathon. A day before James took a bus to NY he found out that another operation was needed to remove more of the damaged tissue. His prosthetic leg will have to be redone after the operation.


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© Alexey Tolchinsky
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