TBPI survivor runs marathon for Dr. Kline & LSU

[Christopher]

Read about this woman months ago, when she started training for the Boston Marathon as a fund raiser for Dr. Kline & his neuro-surgery clinic at LSU, to help rebuild it after hurricane Katrina did it's damage.
Impressive job!

http://www.yorkdispatch.com/local/ci_3726871


A marathon of pain and determination


Yorker finishes Boston race first in class
KATHY STEVENS The York Dispatch

They told her she would not run again.
But the petite, blue-eyed, black-haired woman proved them wrong.

Sunday, she finished the Boston Marathon first in the mobility class -- 26.2 miles in 4 hours, 14 minutes and 21 seconds.

"It was really tough because when you round that last corner, you see the finish line and it looks a long ways away," said Tracey Petron. "I was running with an older gentleman; we both thought, 'Oh my gosh, we'll never get there.'"

Both crossed the line. Petron received a medal, and has managed so far to raise $75,000 for the doctor who helped her do it. That's what she set out to do when she began training in York Township some eight months ago. Petron, 41, wanted to prove that disabilities, pain, can be overcome with perseverance.

She also wanted to raise $100,000 to help rebuild the New Orleans clinic of her neurosurgeon, Dr. David G. Kline. Hurricane Katrina destroyed the facility, which was part of Louisiana State University's Health Sciences Center.

Petron talked about the race, the cash and the clinic as she and three friends left Cambridge, Mass., in her black Honda Accord. Just after 2 p.m. yesterday, they headed south on Interstate 90 en route home.

Talked about experience: Between conversations about which highway would take them where and how fast, Petron talked about the race, the windy, cold and cloudy day that warmed her soul, renewed her vision.

"What really excited me was when I was yelling, 'Support me and the LSU Neuro Clinic' as I ran," she said via cell phone. "People handed money to me while I ran. I helped a lady change a tire, told her what I was doing and she gave money for the fund."

She gave Kline the cash at day's end.

Petron met Kline more than a
decade ago after a car crash in 1987 that destroyed her brachial plexus, a network of nerves that conducts signals from the spine to the shoulder, arm and hand, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

The injury caused Petron extensive pain in her left arm; her arm and hand often are numb, and movement is limited as well. One of Petron's York doctors referred her to Kline, who since has performed eight of her 14 surgeries. Prior to the crash, Petron participated in triathlons.

But Sunday's race was different. Sure, it started out easy enough with a downhill trek in Hopkington, Mass. But by mile-marker two, Petron donned a sling to prevent pain in her left arm. After 10 miles, she called her friends to let them know she was a little more than an hour into it and feeling great.

It got harder: By mile 18, she needed pain relief -- a race attendee sprayed liquid relief onto her shoulder.

She stopped several more times for pain relief. She continued. At times, she walk-raced. By the time the finish line was in view, her right shoulder and knee were burning.

"I finished at 4:05 p.m. (Volunteers) shuttled me through the crowd. They take off the number, give you food and cover you with a blanket," Petron said. "My friends didn't see me come across the finish line. Dr. Kline did. I gave him the money I'd collected in the race. It was phenomenal."

She thanks everyone who has donated, and supported her efforts. She said she hopes people continue sending donations -- she's still $25,000 shy of her fund-raising goal.

"There are many, many people out there with pain like this," Petron said. "I just want them to know that determination and reprogramming the mind can make a difference."What's next? She'll finish college and find work as a neurosurgery technician.

Of course, there is a warm bath in her immediate future.

-- Reach Kathy Stevens at 505-5437 or kstevens@yorkdispatch.com.