Step by step Jim Nolan is hitting his mile markers.
"It's a long race just keep going forward, put one step in front of the other," said Nolan.
His race is not for time, but for independence.
"I was nearly helpless," he said.
Helpless was not a word in Nolan's vocabulary until Sept. 6, 2010, when his life changed.
"I went down a 16 foot embankment and I landed on my head," said Nolan. "I broke my neck and it caused paralysis in my arms and legs, I'm a quadriplegic."
He's a quadriplegic who is moving again after working with the team at Sunnyview for the past nine months.
"Raise your arm up as much as you can," said Nolan's occupational therapist Paula Lawrence.
Being physically fit before the accident is helping Jim now. But like in any marathon, there is a point where the body can do no more and the mind, spirit and drive must kick in.
"I realized I was still the same person, the same Jim Nolan the same intellectual abilities, spiritual abilities, friendships and family so on, but I had a different body so I had to learn to live in this body," he said.
He was told early on that just thinking about moving could help.
"I actually did that for quite some time with my finger right here trying to move it and it wasn't two days later almost by magic that I could move it like that," he said.
It was a similar strategy that got his legs moving again too.
"There was one person on each of my legs and they were walking my legs slowly. I couldn't walk but it was to get my brain to start thinking about walking," said Nolan. "It wasn't two weeks later I was able to take a step myself."
"Jim is the ideal patient he takes what we give him to do and he runs with it at home," said Lawrence. "Perseverance, it's really hard not all patients have that drive to do what you tell them to do when you leave the clinic."
For many, this type of accident would be a game ender. But Nolan never missed a step.
"You realize that even though this happened to me, how lucky I am for the progress I've made," said Nolan.
Like any good coach he's using his experience to inspire others at Sunnyview, talking to other patients with spinal injuries.
"Don't think that because in the first hundred yards you haven't done anything you're not going to get something when you get up to the mile mark," he said.
A teaching moment he is hoping to bring into the classroom too. The former Siena Dean of Business plans to be teaching again in September.
"What we are trying to do at Siena is prepare them for life both intellectually and spiritually," said Nolan.
Preparing them for the curves ahead because in the race of life, the course so often changes.
"In a marathon there's a finish line with this I don't think there's a finish line you just keep running," he said.
