You might feel, late in a race, that your leg is about to fall off. For Rick Ball, who lost his left leg below the knee in a motorcycle accident near his home in Ontario in 1986, that's a legitimate concern. His prosthetic leg comes with many mechanical issues— including the possibility that the whole thing could come clean off. (Word to the wise: "Loctite on the bolts," Ball says.)
Not that this has kept him from running—very fast. In April 2009, Ball set a world record for single-leg amputees with a 3:01:50 marathon. The next month, he notched the single-leg amputee 10-K record with a 37:55. Then he ran a 1:20:44 half-marathon—another world's best. And most recently, this past May, he broke three hours in the marathon, running 2:57:47.
Ball, 45, hadn't been a runner before his accident. "I felt sorry for myself until I saw people at the hospital worse off than me," he says. "I got out of bed and started doing push-ups."
Today Ball shares his story as a motivational speaker for corporate audiences, hospitals, and running clubs. But the married father of two says he especially enjoys talking to school kids. "My message is that if something bad happens to you, never give up," he says. "Everybody has their challenges. It's what you do about it in the end."
Ball always has another goal to chase. Next up: The 2011 International Paralympic Athletics Committee World Championship and the 2012 Paralympic Games. He's on an unpaid leave of absence from his transit job to train full time for those.
"I plan to race for a long time," he says. "But I'd like to coach runners with disabilities, so they can try to break my records."
This year, sub three-hour marathoner Rick Ball dropped the 26.2 and picked up a sprinting leg, dubbed "The Cheetah," after the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) removed the marathon from the 2011 World Championships. Still determined to represent Canada at the 2012 Paralympic Games, Ball refocused his training and earned the IPC 400-meter "A" standard this July after running 57:73. His mark ranks him the sixth fastest amputee in the world against athletes who are half his age. He was also selected to Team Canada to compete in the 200- and 400-meter distances at the Parapan American Games in Mexico this November. Ball, an ambassador for the Orillia Terry Fox Run for Cancer Research, continues to encourage others to live healthy lives by speaking at schools and visiting with people with disabilities.