AKRON, Ohio — More than 7,200 runners are signed up for the 21st annual Akron Marathon, half marathon and team relay, which starts at 7 a.m. Saturday.
For 25-year-old Josh Sommers, it will mark his seventh time racing the full 26.2 miles of the Akron Marathon, but this time the experience will be a different challenge.
"The biggest reason I love running is because I can just get out there and do my own thing. I can set my own pace," Sommers said.
Sommers ran his first marathon in Akron in 2015. He also finished it from 2016 to 2019 and again in 2021. The race wasn't held in 2020 because of COVID-19.
Sommers, of Plain City, near Columbus, planned to battle the race again in 2022, but a terrible accident changed those plans and his whole world.
On the night of June 9, 2022, Sommers, who was driving a motorcycle, lost control on Unionville Road in Union County, sending the motorcycle end-over-end and causing Sommers to lose consciousness.
Sommers said no one witnessed the accident. He laid in a ditch for about 45 minutes, unable to move. He was able to reach his cell phone and call family. His brother eventually found him.
Sommers was taken to a hospital where he learned he was paralyzed from the chest down.
"It essentially just crushed me forward, bent me over, and it crushed T6— the spinal vertebrae," Sommers said.
Sommers, who has always been goal-oriented, said he started thinking about how he would race again while he was in the hospital.
"Within the first week when I was in the hospital, I heard about wheelchair racing," he said. "When I heard about wheelchair racing, I knew that was something I was going to do again."
Sommers will cover the 26.2-mile Akron course in a push-rim wheelchair. He completed his first marathon in a wheelchair a few weeks ago at the Air Force Marathon in Dayton.
On Friday, Sommers returned to the Akron Marathon expo with his good friend, Evan Beachler, at his side. Beachler will be the bike marshal for Sommers on race day.
"I'll be there to help motivate him, keeping him encouraged and going on, and hopefully, surviving next to him. It'll be great," Beachler said.
After picking up his race bib and T-shirt for the Akron Marathon, Sommers acknowledged the race will be especially meaningful.
"I've had to work really hard to get to the point where I could get myself in and out of bed, much less get in a wheelchair, for the past 16 to 18 weeks to be at the start line, so it's special to be back at the marathon," Sommers said.
Beachler, an Army veteran, said his friend's determination is inspiring.
"We all have aches and pains from military service, but still to have the drive to push forward, it's an inspiration for somebody like me, and hopefully a message I would say to my friends in the military still— or who are out now— that whatever is going on, you can still push forward," Beachler said.
Before the accident, Sommers was a scrub tech at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus. He now has an education/administration position at the hospital.
Aside from having a positive outlook, Sommers credits family, friends and his faith for keeping him strong and reaching his goals.
"Anymore, I just have to resign myself to the fact that God has a plan," he said. "Whatever that means, I'm along for the ride, I guess you could say."
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help buy Sommers a customized push-rim wheelchair.