Michael Mills pushes his manual wheelchair 100 miles in under 24 hours. At the 10-hour mark he'd covered 53 miles but hit forearm fatigue. He finished the goal and reflected on independence and living fully after his car accident.
Created and uploaded by TJ LaFaver (uploaded June 10, 2024).
To complete 100 miles in under 24 hours.
4:55 in the morning.
He was at 53 miles and experiencing significant forearm pump.
We are at first form headquarters at 4:55 in the morning. I think getting ready to do something stupid. For me, it's stupid, but some other people think it's probably crazy or whatever you want to call it. But for me, I want to do 100 miles in under 24 hours in my chair. Currently on a world record. I pulled an SUV the length of a football field attached to my back. Mud races, stuff like that. I was the first ever paralyzed person to do a spartan race. I love challenges and I've always loved things that seem impossible till it's really done. And so this is one of those things for me. I'm not trying to get accolades for it. I just want to do it. Just to tell myself that I can still do something like this.
All right, see you guys.
Hey, My name is Zach and I'm Michael Mills, best friend. We've been doing wheelchair stuff for 11 years now. So when we showed up, he said, let's do something stupid like, yeah, let's do it. Michael Mills Today is his 31 years when he had his accident. When he was in his car accident, he died on the table and they had to pull his heart out of his body and he has a scar across his back and they had to fix his heart and put it back in. So we're like, alright, so today is a big day. But then we found out there's a young man named Michael who's also a wheelchair user, who was injured when he was 16 and woke up in the hospital and was 17 like Michael did, who died in the process of saving his life. They brought him back and they're out riding in a wheelchair today. So we were talking about, what do we do? We've set all these world records and done all these incredible things, but what do we do for the future? And we're here at first form and we meet a young man who is getting an opportunity to ride together and talk about how to get older. They tell you how to be careful, how to be safe, but they don't talk about how to live a full life and then how to adjust to it. Like working on your posture. Like for me, for my hands. My hands don't know when to let go for the grip strength and that would make my elbows hurt. So the doctors just told me, don't be a rock climber, don't become an ice climber, it's too dangerous. But I was going to do that anyway. So we wanted to teach younger people that are hurt how to live a full life, but how to do it in a smart way and to realize the impact of repetition and the injuries we have over the shoulders, the hands. So my hands are going to affect me differently. Shoulder injuries happen for wheelers. And to be able to have that conversation, to say, go, be brave. Go do the thing. But here's how you can do it smart, and here's how you can do it together.
We are at 10 hours and 36 minutes, and right at 53 miles, I'm feeling good, Honestly, mentally, I'm great. I'm just. I'm having some real bad forearm pump. Obviously, other than that, it's great. Sun's come out. Kind of looking forward to the sun going down now. This thing got a little warm. Not blistered, but just feeling the pump right now. So that's it. When, you know, we were talking a while ago, it's just no matter how fast or how slow we go, it's just we keep moving forward. You know, at any time, things get hard, just. Just keep pushing forward. That's it. Just keep pushing.
For.
Forever dream.
I did it.
Yeah.
Oh, my gosh.
There it is.
My goal was to do 100 miles in under 24 hours. That was my goal. I did it. I don't know where my wrists meet my hands right now.
What do you have to say to people that are getting into a chair and they're afraid that they can't? They're thinking about the difference between a power chair and between a your own push chair. What's the difference of independence?
This is my no way, Jose to a power chair. You can put me in a power chair when I'm gone. Power chairs. When everything is said and done and I'm not done, I'm done with this, but I'm not done here or here for sure. When things get hard, just keep going. Like my wife says, just pick your heart.
It's. Life is hard no matter what it is. And whether it's getting up in the morning, getting in your chair, it's hard. But you have a choice. You get to choose that choice. I chose to do 100 miles. The choice is to wake up every day and live a life. And no matter how hard things can get, you've always got support. Thanks for Cody and everybody at first form for allowing me to do it here and believing me and hanging out and fixing everything so I could do it. I think I'm tired.
I'm tired and I want to go home. I think I'm gonna go home.
Oh, thank you for hanging out with me. Yeah. I love you.
You.
Oh, I'm hurting. Don't hug that hard.
