A Cummins Inc. employee, with the assistance of a non-profit organization, will lend his legs to help a special-needs athlete cross the finish line at the Mill Race Half-Marathon.
Logan Worley, 34, of Indianapolis, will serve as an “Angel Runner,” or an individual who completes an athletic endurance event such as a marathon or half-marathon while pushing an athlete with a disability in a specially designed wheelchair, said Kristy High, Indiana ambassador for Ainsley’s Angels of America.
The organization is a non-profit that advocates for the overall inclusion of the special needs community and strives to ensure that everyone can participate in athletic endurance events.
A technician at Cummins Inc. in Columbus, Worley will push High’s daughter, Kendall Jade High, a 15-year-old athlete from Russiaville with cerebral palsy and a seizure condition, along the 13-mile course.
Worley, who said he briefly pushed the girl at a competition last year and has helped push athlete riders on a few other occasions, said he is “excited, slash nervous” because he has never completed an entire event pushing a rider-athlete.
“I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of finish lines, but none that I’ve shared.”
Teaming up with Kendall Jade High at the Mill Race Half-Marathon will serve as a trial run for an attempt to break the men’s Guinness World Record for the fastest time to complete a half-marathon while pushing a wheelchair, Worley said.
Worley said he plans to make a run at the record at next year’s 500 Festival Mini-Marathon in Indianapolis. The current record, which was set on Feb. 10 by Marcus Green and Phil Rossall in Worthing, United Kingdom, is 1 hour, 29 minutes and 38 seconds, according to the Guinness World Records website.
Though Worley said he hopes to go for the record next year, he said the main impetus behind helping a rider athlete is “sharing the finish line” and “helping somebody else out.”
“It’s about lending support,” Worley said. “Anything we can do on the side of raising awareness that these kids still want to have good lives, too. They want to take part in everything we want to do, they just need a little help doing so.”
Ainsley’s Angels of America has thousands of members in over 60 cities across 32 states, according to the organization’s website. There are around 400 members in Indiana, Kristy High said. Members include athlete riders, runners and volunteers, she said.
“Our organization is all about inclusion, and inclusion isn’t something that only happens in school or only happens in sports.” Kristy High said. “It’s not only some people some of the time. It’s for everyone all of the time. Inclusion is about how you live day to day. We try to bridge that gap and get people thinking with a wide lens about how they can be inclusive in every aspect.”
Kendall Jade High loves participating in endurance sporting events, her mother said.
Since 2016, Kendall Jade High has participated in more than 50 marathons and half-marathons across the country, including races in Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Virginia, Alabama and the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, DC.
Her first race was in Lake Charles, Louisiana, in 2016, and “she loved it, she smiled really big,” Kristy High said.
“It means a lot as a parent because she is going to be able to participate in something that other people take for granted, and that there is someone willing to sacrifice his time and his body to make sure that she can complete the half-marathon,” Kristy High said.
