Man And His Brain-paralyzed Son Complete Their 7th Marathon

2016/06/24

Zhang Qianran

Luo Shujian and his brain-paralyzed son Xiaobai just completed another marathon.

They spent 5 hours and 5 minutes to complete the marathon in Lanzhou, Gansu Province, on June 11. The outcome was beyond what anyone could have expected. They ranked 3,100 among 6,500 runners.

It was not their debut. On July 11, 2015, they took part in marathon for the first time.

Since then, they have participated in six marathons. This was their seventh marathon.

At the first glimpse, 7-year-old Xiaobai who weighed 27 kilogram could be mistaken for a 3-year-old kid.

Xiaobai was declared brain paralysed when he was just 6 months old. Nine months later, he was identified as mentally-retarded and was said to be unlikely to recover.

Luo refused to bow to any of these. He along with his wife tailored a special training course for Xiaobai from an hour between 7am to 8am.

This had 5 minutes of kneeling on both feet, kneeling on single foot, 5 minutes of squat, picking things 30 times, and scrambling on the belly for 300 times.

Xiaobai could hardly take it all easily. The training always ended up in tears and pains. But, he persisted and on April 22, 2012 Xiaobai learnt to walk on his own.

However, when Xiaobai was 2, epilepsy occurred to him, turning it all over. He tended to fall down more than 20 times a day and had his head hurt in the back side.

These almost offset all the previous efforts.

Luo, meanwhile, continues to have unlimited will power. Once he wanted to buy a crash helmet from abroad, and went on to approach by email the “Massachussets General Hospital of Harvard Medical.”

Working as a courier, Luo can barely afford the treatment of his son. He doubles as a garbage salvager for an extra 2,000 yuan income.

Luo started to run in July 2015. His eagerness to exercise was driven by the concern towards his son. “I want to be strong enough to take care of my son.”

Beginning with 5km per day, he now ran a distance of 10 km every day.

He began his day at 4:30am. After running for an hour, he acted as a garbage salvager. Then he had breakfast. Thereafter, he left for his courier work which took 11 hours. Usually thus, Xiaobai could hardly see his father.

After taking part in marathon in Lanzhou, Luo sent 120 parcels and rounded up 70 parcels in all.

Tiredness was a frequent visitor, but responsibility drove him to keep on.

He said: “I can’t rest, I want to offer you a sound future, no matter what it costs.”

He was motivated by the story of Hoyt, who completed 64 marathon and 78 semi-marathon with his son in the wheelchair. Son of Hoyt felt that he was healthy while running, so his father pushed him for 34 years in marathon.

Eager to follow Hoyts, Luo dreamed of participating in marathon in Boston, US, where statue of Hoyts was situated.

Xiaobai liked running as well. In his hometown Jinhua, Zhejiang province, seeing local army passing by, Xiaobai burst into laughter and clapped his hands. “He loved noisy places.” Luo said.

During the marathon, Luo had to take care of his son all the time. In Lanzhou Marathon, from 21 km to 30 km, Xiaobai wriggled his body with lips curved - sign of crying. Luo kept encouraging him every single kilometer, fed him with water and milk from time to time and pushed him to the finish.

The seven marathons offered Luo another inspiration. Apart from exercise, he hoped one day, Xiaobai himself would be motivated.

The story of Xiaobai touched others. In a marathon in Jinhua, strangers came to cheer for Xiaobei and sent him milk.

Luo was determined to take part in marathon with his son until life parts ways. He felt regretful that he was too busy earning a living and had little spare time to accompany Xiaobai.

He looked forward to helping hands when he would not be around his son.

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Man And His Brain-paralyzed Son Complete Their 7th Marathon

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