Lake Highlands’ Paris Sunio prepares for the Chicago Marathon with support from 9-month-old Elise.
A Lake Highlands man will attempt to run the Bank of America Chicago Marathon Sunday.
Paris Sunio is not the only runner from Dallas headed up to Chi-town for the 26.2-mile race, but his is a special story.
Less than three months ago, Sunio, an L Streets resident and father of a 9-month-old girl, nearly died from severe staphylococcus aureus, commonly known as staph infection.
It started with an excruciating pain in the groin following morning training and led to days in the hospital with mind-blowing stabbing pain, confused doctors and a 106-degree fever accompanied by shakes and delirium before medical staff finally figured out what was wrong.
Staph infections can range from relatively benign to fatal. Doctors told Sunio his was life threatening.
Following several days of hospitalization, Sunio returned home with a tube in his arm through which he administered daily doses of intravenous antibiotics.
He couldn’t walk a step.
Though Sunio has run marathons before, his heart had been set on running the 2012 Chicago Marathon, one of the world’s most popular running events.
Naturally, he was deeply depressed about his condition and the interruption of his plans.
But only briefly.
Sunio is one of those people with a near-unwavering optimism. He hardly ever stops smiling and never loses his sense of humor.
Within a few days, he was able to scoot around the house using a metal walker. “The way I walked was like a pregnant lady waddling, only way slower,” he says. “My 9-month old can stand up from a laying down position 10 times faster than me.”
That little improvement gave way to a great motivation to recover.
Despite the fact that Sunio couldn’t walk without a walker, and that he would have an IV dangling from his arm for the next two months, he decided to follow through with his plan to run in Chicago October 7.
Most of his running friends called him crazy. Some kindly tried to talk him out of it.
“I know they are just worried that I might get hurt,” he says.
Over the next several weeks, Sunio walked at NorthPark mall, pushed his daughter Elise along the Katy Trail, did some jogging at Lake Highlands High School’s track, got the IV removed and eventually ran the 9-plus miles around White Rock Lake.
He and his wife, Grace, left Wednesday for Chicago.
Sunio plans to run, slowly, the first half of the race and then walk as far as he can.
He is not hell-bent on finishing, he says, but he is hell-bent on giving it a shot.
Check out the November 2012 Advocate for our story about Paris and find out how his Chicago trip turned out.
