The BAKA Bros share connection as double amputees, exemplify the meaning of friendship while competing in the Gaylord Gauntlet

WALLINGFORD – Rome Leykin lost his prosthetic leg for the first time Saturday in the mud pit, the first obstacle at the Gaylord Gauntlet race.

As he started to clean the mud out the socket of the artificial limb, his friend, Malek Sabr, another bilateral above knee amputee, was still trying to get through the obstacle, his running blades dragging furrows in the mud as he pulled himself along with his arms.

The two friends continued together through the first few obstacles of the 5K race which runs through woods and fields of the Gaylord Hospital campus but Leykin struggled to keep his prosthetic legs attached on the rough terrain and over the obstacles. He made his way slowly through the first four before he had to stop and head back to the finish line, while Sabr reluctantly continued on to finish the race.

“When he said, ‘I’m going back to the start,’ I got a little bit sad,” said Sabr, 31, of Worcester, Mass. “From the beginning until 1K, I didn’t leave him behind, I was with him.”

To Leykin, 37, of Stamford, they are “The BAKA Bros” – with BAKA standing for Bilateral Above Knee Amputees.

“It’s a no-man-left-behind mentality,” Leykin said. “It’s about the camaraderie and friendships and people you meet while you’re doing it.

“A bad accident happens and you’re selfish, it’s the only way to get through it, then you come to the point where you’re selfless again. That’s where I am. I don’t talk about I, I mean, I came here in the hopes that I’d finish but I didn’t, so what? Now it’s more about Malek’s here, I’m seeing all these people, it’s a fantastic atmosphere.”

In Feb. 2018, Leykin was commuting to work in Manhattan when he had a seizure and fell onto the subway tracks. He was hit by the train and lost both of his legs and suffered a traumatic brain injury. He turned 32 during the three weeks he spent in a coma. When he emerged, he had to learn how to do everything again.

He met Sabr on Facebook and the two became friends, finally meeting each other in person at a boot camp for amputees last year.

Sabr, who grew up in Afghanistan, lost his legs in 2005 at age 11 when he was collecting firewood and stepped on a landmine. In 2007, he met an American who helped him get to a hospital in California for treatment. Sabr first was a swimmer; he competed for Afghanistan in the 2014 Paralympics.

He ran a 5K for the first time Saturday.

“I made a lot of new friends,” Sabr said. “It was amazing. I’m happy I saw Rome and his dad.”

Right before their wave was supposed to start Saturday, there was a deluge of rain. Both Sabr and Leykin ran with running blades. Sabr had a little trouble with his when they got wet and had to stop a few times and clean out the sockets, but Leykin had a hard time keeping his on from the start. Last year, he used heavier prosthetic legs but struggled to keep those on as well and didn’t finish the race. He was hoping the blades would work better because they were lighter.

“Even though I don’t know how to run yet, I can walk quickly,” Leykin said. “I was hoping because they were lighter, my suction would hold better, but I guess not.”

Leykin crawled through the mud pit, then kept the legs attached enough to get to the next obstacle, a wall, but lost a leg there, too. He and Sabr were running with a team from Hanger, a prosthetic company, so the team members helped.

“Once air or water or something disrupts the feel, it’s hard to get it back,” said Matt Boino of Wethersfield, a below knee double amputee who works as a certified orthotist/prosthetist at Hanger who ran Saturday but doesn’t work with Leykin or Sabr. “And in the conditions of the Gauntlet itself, as soon as you dive into the mud in that first obstacle, you’re introducing a whole other problem.”

Leykin made it over another wall and a big rock (at this point, he took off the legs because it was easier) and then he was done. He went to the finish line to wait for his friend.

“You say, ‘Why isn’t this frustrating you?’” Leykin said. “Do I have any time to be frustrated? Nooo. Especially with the crowd I roll with. I got no time to bitch. I gotta keep rolling forward and getting better.”

Leykin also handcycles. He’s completed the New York City Marathon twice and will compete in the Berlin, Marine Corps and New York City marathons this fall and the Boston Marathon next spring. His goal is to be able to run the marathon on his blades.

He also plans to finish the Gauntlet next year.

“I had no idea what it was,” he said. “I just signed up (last year) and I did it. It was amazing. The camaraderie, the energy level, the intensity – I like how they start off with D Day, crawling through the mud, it really sets the tone for the rest of the competition.

“I will have different (socket) liners next year, these are just off the shelf. I’m hoping to be able to transition from these to the full length (prosthetic legs) again. Or maybe I’ll wear these again to go for a legit time instead of just finishing.

“This is part of the process. I know it will eventually get easier and better.”