Taking nothing for granted
Nov. 15—One year ago, a Lebanon man was in a wheelchair.
Over the weekend, he completed a 100-mile race in Vienna, Illinois.
In September of 2021, Matthew Cook was relegated to a wheelchair as he battled Guillain-Barré Syndrome, a condition that causes the body's immune system to attack the nervous system.
"There were times when I was really down and frustrated and thinking about life in general," the 36-year-old Cook said. "It kind of made me realize how precious life is, how much I wanted to live like I wouldn't have life the next day and not take it for granted."
During his recovery, there were a lot of unknowns. Fortunately, Cook was able to recover quickly, running a marathon in April of 2022.
Cook enjoyed running before his diagnosis and decided to keep running after his marathon in April. He had an appetite to run more and frequently uses the time while he runs to reflect on life.
"Sometimes, I feel like we're not always motivated, but in those times, it teaches me to push on and keep going," Cook said.
He decided to run in Saturday's Tunnel Hill 100-mile/50-mile Marathon after watching motivational videos about people who run ultra-marathons.
"I just wanted to do something that I would be proud of later in life," Cook said.
His preparation process included running 50 miles a week and building up to 100, doing 30, 40 and 50-mile runs and focusing on training for the race for twelve weeks.
To complete the entire Tunnel Hill course, it took Cook 22 hours, 56 minutes and 1 second. He said that his wife helped.
"I remember being down on all fours and nauseous, ready to throw up, and I'm just glad I didn't quit and kept pressing on," Cook said.
Derrick Baker runs with Cook in a group affiliated with Lebanon's Crossroads Fellowship Church. They met through the Strava app, where runners can track their times, when Cook reached out and asked to join their running group.
"Now, he's running 30 miles at a time ... he's doing a 100 mile run," Baker said. "People don't do that. You don't go from not being able to walk to running 100 miles in a year."
Ryan Wolfenbarger is the executive pastor at Crossroads Fellowship Church and runs in their group with Baker and Cook.
"My understanding from what he shared with us is that he pretty much said, 'When I'm able to get up out of this and go, I'm not going to take it for granted ... I'm gonna run,' " Wolfenbarger said. "That's pretty much what he's done. He's taken off with it."
Cook finished 54th out of 138 runners at the Tunnel Hill race.
