Triple Amputee Completes Adventure Race

Rob Howard / 30.01.2010

Rajesh Durbal, competing with team mate Dr. Ron Eaglin (racing as team "Live Free") recently took 6th place in the Resolution 3 hour race presented by Pangea Adventure Racing at Silver River State Park, Florida.

Rajesh is a triple amputee, racing with 1 arm and 2 prosthetic limbs. Adventure racing involves navigating with map and compass to control locations via bike, boat and foot in natural lands.

The venue was on lands surrounding the largest free flowing artisan spring in the world, and with 35 teams ranging in size from solo to 4 person and a breezy 70 degree day the field was set. At 13:00 the adventure was on and teams had 3 hours to visit as many control locations as possible, teams were now battling for top honors.

Eaglin describes the event: " I was glad that we were lucky enough to be able to start with the paddle, and hammered through a beautiful paddle section. We decided to bike second and the nice muddy single track and the navigation made it a lot of fun. We were both about at the wall when we hopped off the bike and headed into the orienteering/trek. We pushed at 100% to move through this section and were happy to complete the race 6th overall, clearing the course. Raj was a great team-mate and pushed both me and himself hard, we will definitely race together again."

Only 7 teams of the 35 teams who started the race were able to clear the course and Rajesh and team "Live Free" missed being in the top 5 by just 2 minutes.

Rajesh Described his race day as follows;

â€œFrom my point of view, I would describe it at 150% effort. Running on uneven terrain with legs and sneakers it's almost impossible for a double BK (below the knee amputee), in addition my knee's are congenitally developed, meaning there are not as strong as a fully developed knee's.

At first I thought it would be easy paced with breaks in between to navigate and relax. I quickly realized after we got into the canoe that it wasn't going to be that way at all. Paddling was a challenge, being an arm amputee, I couldn't hold the paddle properly, and get a symmetrical pull. I quickly adapted, relying on my left arm, back, shoulders, to do most of the work. Thank God Ron is a strong paddler; he definitely made up for the lack of my power.

Already hurting, the run back to the bike, took everything out of me to get my feet moving through the uneven loose terrain. Running with prosthetic's, and sneakers feels like you are running in sand, with ankle weights. I had to stop once to let the sweat out of my liners. (We lost 1 minute there.)