Fill out this form to email this article to a friend

Your name		Your email
Recipient email	You may enter up to 20 multiple email addresses, separated by commas.
Your message
Validation Code	Hear validation code
	Enter validation code

We were unable to send your email.

Click here to try again.

Runner hit by oil tanker finds strength in his routine

By Brendan Galella, Times Correspondent
In print: Tuesday, May 6, 2008

A determined Kevin Heald, 40, works out with weights with help from Laurel Weightman at the Dade City YMCA recently.
	[MIKE PEASE | Times]

Story Tools E-mail this story Contact the editor Print this story Comment on this story Social Bookmarking Digg Facebook Stumbleupon Reddit Del.icio.us Newsvine

ADVERTISEMENT

DADE CITY

Kevin Heald may not have set any weightlifting records, but there is little doubt he is the strongest person in Pasco County.

While living in Maine, Heald, 40, was out for a routine morning jog on a dreary September morning but was left for dead after an oil tanker struck him alongside the road.

For at least 30 minutes, Heald was left in the middle of the road, still conscious but unable to move.

He was eventually found by his brother's girlfriend, who was a registered nurse, and she was able to take him to the hospital.

For the next four months he was in a coma, and it was unknown whether he would ever awake again.

When Heald did, he was paralyzed on his right side.

Now, 14 years after the accident, each Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning, Heald walks into the Dade City YMCA, pops in his own workout CD and does 20 minutes on the elliptical machine, 20 minutes lifting weights and 30 minutes riding a bike.

It's a pretty intense workout for someone who wasn't supposed to live for more than 96 hours.

"They told me I wouldn't be walking, or doing anything again," Heald said. "But here I am. I like to just keep pushing and have my consistent routine."

His injuries forced him to become left-handed and to learn to speak and walk again, but the accident couldn't take away his spirit.

"Kevin always has a smile in his eyes, and everyone can see that," said Laurel Weightman, branch coordinator at the Dade City YMCA. "He is the most determined person that I know, and even with all he's gone through, I've never seen him complain. He's so optimistic about everything."

Heald's willpower allowed him to ignore any diagnosis from doctors, and he was able to use a specially made walker to get back on his feet.

Once Heald was able to communicate with his family, the first thing he requested was Rush's album Grace Under Pressure, because music was always an important part of his life.

"I really learned a lot about him after the accident, because our taste in music is so different," said Heald's mother, Gloria. "I had to go to the store and find all of this heavy metal, and the people working there would look at me like I was crazy."

When working out at the YMCA, he listens to George Thorogood's Bad to the Bone and other rock 'n' roll classics during his session.

But Heald has shed the walker for a cane and spends an hour Tuesdays and Thursdays strolling through Country Aire Manor.

Even though he can only use his left arm, Heald has used every machine in the facility and hopes to begin working out with a medicine ball.

His ultimate goal is to regain his balance and start running again.

"It would have been easy to just quit and not do anything," Heald said. "I don't think I could sit around the house all day, so I started this routine and never stopped."

Submit story ideas and feedback to communitysports@tampabay.com.