Wheels up: best friends take on the Boston Marathon together

BOWLING GREEN, Ky.- The Boston Marathon is a prestigious race that lots of athletes dream of competing in one day. 

Running the Boston Marathon is a hard thing to do in itself and local guys Mike Sprouse and Matt Davis do it on wheels!

“Guys and gals that participate in wheelchair sports, we train just as hard as the runners do and a lot of the time people don’t understand that,” said Davis. 

They train for months on end to race the Boston Marathon…a fast, hilly course of 26.2 miles. 

The push rim competitors, which Matt races in, take off first. The hand cyclists, including Mike, are off 5 min after them. 

“That’s the fun part about me and Matt. My goal is to catch Matt before he gets to the finish. Always look for the opportunity to see Matt Davis struggling up a hill,” said Sprouse. 

They aim to finish the race around the one hour and 30 minute mark. 

“When you’re coming into the city and you get close to the finish line, you can just hear the crowds and how you get closer and how amazing it is and it’s kinda hard to describe that experience unless you’ve been through it,” said Davis. 

This will be the duo’s third Boston Marathon together. Mike actually met Matt at the first race he ever did.

“The race was fixing to start and Matt’s like hey man this race is fixing to start, you might want to wake up. And we’ve been friends for over 20 years now,” said Sprouse. 

They hope what they do inspires other people in wheelchairs to never give up and live life to the fullest. 

“Maybe they have a situation where they recently had a disability now that they didn’t have before and it’s something to see after they had their disability that they can still be active and still participate in,” said Davis. 

The race kicks off Monday morning in Boston. 

Mike also has the honor of throwing out the first pitch at the Boston Red Sox game on Sunday.