Kelly Smith owned the men’s wheelchair division of the Vancouver Sun Run for years before basically retiring after 2006.

So when the 2004 Paralympic silver medallist in the marathon and a damn-the-paralysis thrill-seeker rolled down Pacific Boulevard and became the first person to break the tape on Sunday in the 25th annual staging of the 10K race, you just knew there had to be a good story there somewhere.

“Ahh, it’s just about having fun again, going back to the roots of why I enjoy the sport so much,” said the 44-year-old Langley resident. “It’s not about making any big comeback.”

Hmmm? Nothing compelling there.

Then, he threw out this little carrot: “I needed a year off . . . and then I injured myself. Last year was just a total barbecue year for me.”

Injured?

“Oh yeah, that’s a whole story on it’s own,” he says with a big grin.

Now we’re talking.

It actually goes back 17 months. Smith was in Maui learning to kite board in November 2007, when he and his buddies heard about a great mountain biking trail on the back side of the Haleakala Crater. (images)

“I decided to go back to strapping my feet into a mountain bike — full suspension, downhill bike,” says Smith, who was paralyzed in a 1991 rock climbing accident. “Got to the top of the hill at [an altitude of] 10,000 feet. Got clipped in, strapped in, and they gave me a push. We were going from 10,000 feet to 3,000 feet on a straight downhill dirt trail with switchbacks. I was having a blast.

“Halfway down, got a little too confident and cocky — I had whipped by everybody going ‘YEAAHHH! I got it’ — and next turn, I crashed and go over the handlebars. I go ‘Guys, I might have hurt myself.’”

He fractured two bones in his right elbow, though he didn’t know that at the time.

“I said ‘Look, we’re not getting medivac-ed out of here.’ They put a stick and a spare rubber tire around my elbow just to support it. I got back on the bike, rode the rest of the way down, taken to hospital and put in a sling cast. Then we go to a pub the next day and this guy comes up to me and goes ‘You’re the dude! You’re the dude!’ I’m like ‘What are you talking about.’ He’s like ‘I heard all about you, the crazy paralyzed guy who went mountainbiking down Haleakala Crater, broke his arm, got back on the bike and kept riding. You’re awesome!’

“So, if you’re going to hurt yourself, you might as well create a legacy, eh.”

Unfortunately for Smith, the fractures didn’t set properly — “the first doctor told me things would be fine” — and it wasn’t until he saw Vancouver Canuck doctors Bill Regan and Mike Wilkinson that he got proper care. “Those guys took care of me.” Even so, he couldn’t get in for surgery until August 2008.

“Now, it is what it is,” says Smith, who can’t fully straighten his right arm and only started training a month ago. “It pretty much destroyed my elbow.”

Not enough, however, to keep him from pushing his chair. His time of 24:02 was three minutes off the 21:02 he posted in his last win in 2006.

“It didn’t hurt out there today, maybe a little on the hills . . . but I’m back just to have fun. I thought, maybe I could do a 25, so it went pretty good. I’m healthy enough to get back into supporting local races. I always have fun at the Sun Run.”

Smith says he plans to return to kite boarding, play some wheelchair basketball and will mentor a few athletes “who have higher aspirations.

“As much as barbecues and beer are nice, I can’t do that 100 per cent of that. I’ve got to balance it out with some of this.”

He also wants to promote able-bodied participation in wheelchair road racing around the Lower Mainland.

“Maybe you’ve got a bum leg, or a bum ankle. Or even if you don’t, you just want to try the sport, come out, train with us. We’ll teach you everything. If you’re a runner, there’s nothing better than getting in the wheelchair, being the first ones on the course. We want to create a real fun environment and get as many people involved as we can.”

Michelle Stilwell of Nanoose Bay, a double gold medallist in wheelchair sprints at the Beijing Paralympics, won the women’s division Sunday in 35:43, a personal best by more than four minutes.

“I’m in great shape, I’m training more now for the marathon,” said Stilwell, who plans to do a major international wheelchair-only marathon in Japan in October. “It’s the biggest one in the world. For a first marathon, that will be an amazing experience.

“I had an incredibly successful year last year and I just wanted to challenge myself.”

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