Stroke can't sideline trotter

Allyn Ramker has run the Turkey Trot every Thanksgiving since it started 31 years ago. So he wasn't about to stop this year, although the odds were against it.

A stroke during neck surgery six months ago left him unable to walk, and with only partial vision and hearing.

"I couldn't move my feet or my hands and I couldn't see my face," he said.

The sudden transformation devastated his wife, Debbie.

"I just couldn't believe it," she said. "I was in shock."

But Ramker, a 58-year-old former football and wrestling coach, was determined. He had already fought prostate cancer. He lost his sister and mother-in-law to cancer this year. He was angry - angry enough to set an extraordinary goal.

He put aside his walker and began intensive physical therapy. He would run the 10k Turkey Trot for the 31st time.

"So it's just been that," he said. "Push, push, push. And I've pushed."

Even after his health insurance for therapy ran out over the summer, the Clearwater man continued sessions at Impact Health in Palm Harbor three times a week.

"We didn't know if we could help him out at all," physical therapist Joe Millen said. "The dizziness that he's dealt with, the spinning in his head, the loss of vision, the loss of hearing could all be excuses not to work hard.

"He works harder every time he comes in here."

Ramker didn't want to just finish the 6-mile race, he'd set a time for himself.

"I don't know if I'll break an hour but that's my goal," he said during therapy a week before the event.

On Thursday morning, he donned the white T-shirt he designed to commemorate the race, his personal travails, and the memory of his relatives and joined the roughly 15,000 runners. His family and friends cheered as he approached the starting line with two running friends close at his side to lend support if necessary.

Fifty-four minutes and 56 seconds later, as his wife, Debbie, chanted, "Here he comes, here he comes" from the sidelines, Ramker crossed the finish line. The time was a personal best in recent years.

After hugs and high fives, the sweat-drenched runner paused for a moment of reflection.

"I have a lot to be thankful for," he said, "and I am."