RP Members here is another one of those great stories about overcoming the odds against you! Awesome!
It’s the burn that Cedric King thought he lost, that sensation when you push your body to its limit on the last lap or the last rep. King calls it “redlining.”
As a master sergeant in the Army Rangers, King would redline a lot in training. His lungs would sear and his legs would pump. He was one of the fastest guys in his squad. He could run two miles in less than 12 minutes.
“I used to run so fast; I was proud of that,” he told Runner’s World. “I cannot look at myself as a follower. I want to be the absolute best, the fastest.”
On July 25, 2012, while on his second tour of Afghanistan, King lost both legs and part of his right arm and hand from an IED explosion. During rehabilitation at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., King felt like he’d lost part of his identity. He was afraid he’d lost the ability to push his body to its limit. To redline.
“I thought, ‘Without legs, I am not who I used to be. I am not the same person,’” King said. “I was the guy that was a competitor; when I’m at the end of that interval coming up at that quarter mile, it's that burn that I crave.”