Athletics Ontario Running Podcast · John Shep

EP 193: Mike Greer - TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon's Adaptive Athletes Program

·32 min·2 clips

Mike Greer says a dedicated adaptive-athlete team and five-to-10-minute head start can change a race.

1. Athletics Ontario Running Podcast focuses on Mike Greer and the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon's Adaptive Athletes Program. 2. Host John Shep interviews Mike Greer, a wheelchair athlete and speaker at the Athletics Ontario Race Director Summit. 3. The episode asks what race access, training, and logistics look like for an adaptive athlete. 4. Greer traces his running start to a 2011 Toronto Waterfront 5K with his wife and a friend who backed out. 5. He says that first event took about an hour and a half and used a day chair and a free wheel. 6. He identifies osteogenesis imperfecta, or OI, as the condition that has made him a wheelchair user since childhood. 7. Greer says he grew up playing street hockey, floor hockey, and wheelchair basketball with able-bodied peers. 8. He explains that adaptive racing is a different sport because access, equipment, and course design all affect participation. 9. He describes race-entry barriers such as event acceptance, course configuration, grass pickup areas, stairs, live lanes, and off-road sections. 10. He says race organizers also need to think about where a day chair or racing chair goes from start line to finish line. 11. Greer says a good adaptive setup includes a dedicated team, a mustering area, and a place to transfer into a racing wheelchair or hand cycle. 12. He says push-rim athletes often need a five-to-10-minute head start to build speed safely. 13. He says finish-line support should include a marshal who helps with food, transport back to the tent, and transfer into a day chair. 14. Greer says adaptive athletes usually carry their own hydration and avoid stopping at aid stations unless there is a medical issue. 15. He explains that his shoulders are the main training focus, along with stretching, yoga, weight training, hills, and an indoor roller. 16. He says a shoulder injury from carrying water softener salt downstairs has lingered for about four years and requires ongoing management. 17. The conversation sounds like a practical interview, with John Shep asking detailed questions about equipment, logistics, and race-day conditions. 18. Greer’s tone stays direct and matter-of-fact, especially when he says he is doing the same miles and chasing the same personal goals in a different way. 19. People interested in adaptive sports, race operations, and wheelchair racing would likely value this episode. 20. Listeners wanting general motivation without equipment or logistics detail might skip it.

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