Back In the Race

On the first of May in 2010, Chris Tate was young and fit. He was a personal trainer working at Reston's He was a newlywed in his early 20s, with the kind of energy to scramble up rocks at Great Falls National Park or easily run 10 miles or train more than a dozen clients in a day.

Then he went for a ride on a friend's dirt bike. Then he was hit by a drunk driver. Then he woke up in Inova Fairfax Hospital with a broken right tibia, a damaged left arm, and a left ankle so shattered and a femoral artery so twisted doctors were pretty sure they could not save Tate's leg.

After a few days of trying, they couldn't. Tate's left leg was amputated below the knee.

"I'm not a professional athlete," says Tate. "But it is my job to be on my feet. You want to be able to be as active - if not more active - than your clients."

It is 16 months later, and Tate, 25, is again more active than his clients. He will participate in the 28th annual Reston Triathlon on Sunday wearing his carbon fiber prosthetic leg. He was disappointed to find out on Friday that the swim portion was canceled because of the recent heavy rains.

"Oh, man," he says. 'I just bought a wetsuit too."

Tate has been up for a challenge since his accident. Lying in a hospital bed was miserable, so he learned to maneuver from bed to wheelchair using just his right arm and his strong torso.

He recovered at his parent's house, eager to heal from surgeries and complete the physcial therapy necessary to get the prosthetic leg.

Amputees must develop strength and flexibility to be able to use the device, and even then it is a painful process, says Tate. The limb stays on through suction, and that is difficult to get used to, says Tate.

But it is better than being immobile.

"Most of the physical therapists said they had not dealt with someone as driven to get to normalcy as soon as possible," said Tate, who was a distance runner at South Lakes High School. "Every time I went to the physical therapist I would ask 'Can I run today?' "

After about two months with the new limb, he could. It didn't go that well. The gait that comes naturally in running isn't the same with in artificial limb.

"It just didn't flow right," Tate said. "I didn't not have my hips. The brain knows how to run, but my legs weren't doing it."

By fall, Tate was back at work, itching to have daily access to the variety of weight machines.

Kathleen McCarron, one of Tate's clients, says she is impressed by Tate's recovery and fitness.

"I am pretty amazed at what he can do," said McCarron, who is a physician's assistant in orthopedic surgery. "His injury has not slowed him down."

On May 1, 2011 - a year to the day of the accident, Tate ran a 5K alongside Danny Gillenwater, a police officer who ran out of his Fox Mill home to help Tate at the accident scene. The two have since become friends.

"I crushed him in the race," says Tate. "I finished in 29 minutes."

That's only four or five minutes slower than his pre-accident time. He ran another couple of races, then recently completed a Sprint Triathlon in Ashburn.

Sunday's Reston Triathlon, which he ran a few years ago, is the next milestone. On the "eventually, maybe" list are a marathon and Ironman Triathlon.

That doesn't mean he can do everything. A prosthesis can do a lot, but it isn't as flexible as the ankle he used to have. That means he can't shift on a motorcycle, but he hasn't been on one since the accident anyway. Sports that use stops and starts and kicks are probably out too.

"That's OK," Tate says. "I was never good at basketball, anyway."