DAVIS COUNTY, Utah -- A Clinton man plans to break a distance record on a hand-cycle.
He admits it's not going to be easy, Kris Sanford is quadriplegic but has partial use of his hands and arms.
“It was April 25th 2009; I was with a buddy,” Sanford said. “We hydroplaned, and the truck and the trailer slid around and started going off the road. We rolled maybe seven or eight times. I got ejected out the rear window.”
That accident left Sanford paralyzed, with a long road to recovery.
While at his occupational therapy, he noticed a plaque that commended the long distance hand-cyclist world record holder.
“It just kind of stuck in my head and got to the point where I needed some competition,” he said.
Sanford decided to set a new record for long distance hand-cycling. Now he's training for an 1,100-mile journey from Idaho Falls to Huntington Beach, California.
Sanford has months of training and miles of road ahead, but he said he has to keep moving forward.
“You don't want to be paralyzed in your life," he said. "Being paralyzed physically is tough… it is much more of a waste to be paralyzed in life.”
The long distance cyclist said he hopes his story inspires people and the money he raises for the ride will go toward therapy treatment for others currently bound to a wheel chair.
If you want to learn more about Sanford’s journey, check out his website.
