A year ago, Jacob Mogan watched the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race from the Shepherd Center, a spinal-cord and brain-injury rehabilitation center along the route.
This year, at 15, he finished the race as the youngest entrant in the wheelchair division.
In May 2013, Mogan had a rare spinal-cord stroke that paralyzed the lower half of his body. That June he went to the Shepherd Center for treatment, where he later saw the Peachtree and was inspired to race it as soon as he could.
“(I was) like, ‘Wow, that must have been very difficult,’ because at the moment I was very weak,” Jacob said after finishing the race. “Now I’m here doing it.”
Jacob, from Muscle Shoals, Ala., hung out with other wheelchair division entrants in the Grady High School parking lot after the race. A volunteer asked him, “Did you hear me? I was shouting your name at the finish.”
Yes, he said, he did hear someone shout his name. He also said the support he’s gotten before and during the race had been amazing.
Amazing — a word he used several times to describe this Fourth of July.
“(It’s) amazing that I just did Peachtree after not even a year ago (having) my injury,” he said.
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