| History and Founder Profile |
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Race Running Bikes or Race Runners are used by people of all ages for recreation, everyday mobility and sport at all levels. Race Running was pioneered in the mid 1990's in Denmark by Connie Hansen, a Paralympic wheelchair athlete. Race Running and Connie's Petra range of Running Bikes are now exported to many other countries around the world.
From 1982 - 1989, I participated in backward wheelchair racing, without receiving any outstanding results. I never felt that I could "submit myself" completely - I had more power but my CP prevented from making the most out of it. Therefore, in 1989 I contacted the famous wheelchair racer Connie Hansen, who was educated as an ergo therapist, to help me develop a wheelchair where I could use all my muscle power. After a while Connie asked me why I wanted to wheel backwards and not forwards. I agreed to the idea of running forward and we made some drawings and the first Petra (Race Runner) was made out of a front wheel, handlebars and a saddle from a bicycle, the back from a swivel chair and some pipes from an old vacuum cleaner. Connie's father, who was a retired blacksmith, put all this together to something I could run in. From the results we could see that this was better than moving backwards. My record was 38 seconds for 100m and on one of my first time keepings in the Race Runner the time was 28 seconds. Soon we found out that this thing was something others could use and that is why I lined up in my Race Runner at the Robin Hood Games in 1993 where I raced against CP2L. At that moment I got CPISRA's attention and one of the CPISRA classifiers said that the first time he saw me running in the Race Runner in this way: "This is the right way to compete. By running forward you show that you want to attack and win. By running backwards you look like you are escaping (from something)."
In 1992, when we were still testing the Race Runner there was the Paralympics in Barcelona. The mascot of the games was a girl named Petra. She had no arms but good strong legs and she could do all sorts of sports. She symbolized the potential of the new sport and an important approach to any life's circumstances - always look for the resources and find a way to compensate for disabilities.
Gradually when this discipline has been presented all over the World the reaction from people was why is it called Petra. In 1997 we changed the name to Race Running. |
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