‘Ain’t no mountain high enough’: Wounded vet runs marathons and climbs mountains

Army and Navy veteran Aaron Hale grabs his 70-pound backpack off the ground and flips it over and onto his back before walking up 16 flights of stairs at the TOPS’L Tides condos. His neighbor and training partner, Dawn Ratcliffe, helps guide him up each step. Losing one’s eyesight would be devastating as well as challenging to cope with for many people, but not for Hale. To him, he’s lucky to be alive.

After surviving an IED explosion while deployed in Afghanistan, Hale not only lost his eyesight, but also lost his sense of smell and partial hearing as well.

“I get to be there for my son to grow up; I get to do great things like climb mountains… I’m living a great life,” said Hale. “I’m lucky… you can call it a second lease on life, but I’ve always been pretty happy about the way my life has turned out.”

His training at the Tides condos has been preparation for the upcoming 2015 Boston Marathon and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in August. Hale said he is confident about completing the 26.2 miles in Boston.

For marathon runners, Hale says running in the Boston Marathon is like the “Super Bowl of Marathons.”

“Two years ago, my big goal after retiring from the military was to climb the mountain in Peru and I did that with an all wounded veteran team,” he said. “Then last year I set my sights on running the Air Force Marathon… and the Army Ten-Miler. I ended up also running the Pensacola Marathon and Rock and Roll Marathon in San Antonio. Three of those four marathons were actually qualifying times for Boston.”

 Hale said climbing the highest mountain in Africa is just one of the infamous seven summits he hopes to complete with a guide group. The seven summits are the highest mountain peaks that span across all seven continents.

“There’s only been one blind person to ever climb Everest and all the seven summits,” said Hale. “My blind veteran friends and I collectively will be the first blind veterans to do it.”

When he moved into his Santa Rosa Beach home thanks to Building Homes for Heroes in 2013, Ratcliffe heard he was looking for a running partner. An avid runner herself, she was eager to lend a hand.

“I went and knocked on his door, and he was in the kitchen chopping up vegetables,” said Ratcliffe. “We planned to meet a couple of days later and it was raining, but once I make a commitment, we went running in the rain and that was it.”

When he’s not trekking 16 flights of stairs, Hale runs 20 miles around his neighborhood while Ratcliffe hops on her bike and rides beside him.

“It’s fun for me and I love doing it,” Hale said.

 Hale added he will be hiking mountain ranges throughout California and Colorado in preparation for Kilimanjaro. In the meantime, he will be running through the streets of Boston, sporting a yellow bib on April 20.