Over the past 12 months I've had the great fortune to spend time with Tom White, a new addition to my life list of amazing, inspiring people (see also: Sharon Matola, Alex Lowe, Alexandra Morton) whose spirit stays with me long after the reporting and writing end. Tom's a family doctor in Buena Vista, Colorado, who nearly lost his leg in a motorcycle accident 25 years ago. After recovering from that tragedy (he was an NCAA marathoner at the time), Tom returned to doing what he loved: Running long distances with his wife Tammy. When his leg began failing him again, though, he made an agonizing choice. He decided to have it cut off so that he might run again. I followed Tom and Tammy through his decision, surgery, recovery, and rehab for Runner's World, and you can read the whole story here. A little more than a year ago Tom was recovering from surgery. Last month he ran the New York City Marathon. Check out his mid-race interview in this video from WNBC.
About Bruce
- Bruce Barcott, a 2009 Guggenheim Fellow in nonfiction, is the author of The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw, named one of the best books of 2008 by Library Journal. His previous book, The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier, was a recipient of the Washington State Governor's Award and was recently re-issued in a 10th anniversary edition. Barcott is an environmental journalist whose articles on humans and wildlife appear in Outside Magazine, National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine, and other publications. He reviews nonfiction for the New York Times Book Review, Outside, and On Earth magazine. He is currently at work on a narrative history of the battle over salmon and treaty rights in the Pacific Northwest.
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December 08, 2008
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