I was paralyzed a decade ago — here’s how I run the NYC marathon

Michael Ring was organizing a 100-mile motorcycle circuit successful Putnam County successful 2014 erstwhile he started falling, dropping things and tripping complete worldly — it was happening truthful often that his then-boss took notice.

“He took maine speech and said, ‘I don’t talk astir this, but I’m a crab survivor. I’m saying that to scare you. Call your doctor. This is weird,'” Ring, now 61, recalled to The Post.

The Brooklyn autochthonal saw a expert and nan news wasn’t bully — he was diagnosed pinch Guillain-Barré syndrome. His immune strategy was attacking his nerves, temporarily paralyzing him.

Ring spent 135 days successful nan infirmary and had to relearn really to walk. Now, he is preparing to toed nan statement astatine Sunday’s TCS New York City Marathon, a 26.2-mile people he knows each excessively good since initially tackling it successful 1980.

It takes him doubly arsenic agelong these days — he sports ankle braces and runs pinch 2 volunteers from Achilles International, a non-profit that supports athletes pinch disabilities.

“I’m going to commencement 40 minutes earlier nan elite men, and everyone’s going to walk me, each 55,000 people,” Ring said. “My Achilles guides are for illustration my violative linebackers. They’ll tally down maine for nan first half of nan title truthful that group don’t clang into maine successful nan 2nd half of nan race.”

The Park Slope begetter of 2 was a elder astatine Sheepshead Bay High nan first clip he attempted nan NYC marathon. A self-described “spaz,” he joined nan way squad to beryllium capable to skip gym class.

He ran nan marathon without training aliases coaching — and it didn’t spell well.

“I went retired excessively accelerated and past drank a batch of h2o successful Queens and threw up disconnected nan Queensboro Bridge,” Ring shared, admitting he dropped retired astatine mile 16.

He gave up moving but yet sewage backmost into nan athletics successful nan early ’90s. He ran nan NYC marathon from 1993 to 2013 — mounting a people individual grounds of 4 hours and 11 minutes successful 1994 — and was signed up for 2014 erstwhile disaster struck.

Ring took a roadworthy travel successful April 2014 to spectate nan Boston Marathon — that title was peculiarly typical because it was nan first aft nan 2013 bombing.

Afterward, he and pals grabbed meal astatine a “hole-in-the-wall” barbecue joint. He had chicken. He doesn’t retrieve nan sanction of nan place, and he’s not precisely judge that’s wherever he sewage sick.

But he had a three-day bad bout of nutrient poisoning that changed his life forever. Food poisoning from Campylobacter, a type of germs that tin origin diarrhea, is 1 of nan astir communal triggers for Guillain-Barré.

Some 3,000 to 6,000 Americans develop nan disease each year, usually aft experiencing a respiratory aliases gastrointestinal infection.

“If you return each group pinch Guillain-Barré, it’s usually said astir 20% of group person a mediocre outcome, which we often specify arsenic being incapable to locomotion unassisted astatine nan six-month [mark],” Dr. Thomas H. Brannagan III, head of nan Peripheral Neuropathy Center and co-director of nan EMG laboratory astatine Columbia University Medical Center, told The Post.

Ring, unfortunately, has acute centrifugal axonal neuropathy, a very uncommon version of Guillain-Barré that typically intends a faster onset of terrible musculus weakness.

He underwent intravenous immunoglobulin, receiving antibodies from patient donors, and off-label chemotherapy earlier facing a agelong roadworthy of beingness therapy.

“Doctors would inquire maine to wiggle my toes, and I’d look astatine nan doctor, I said, ‘Why don’t you inquire maine to wiggle your toes?’ I conscionable couldn’t. I’d look down astatine my feet, and they didn’t move,” Ring said.

Eventually, he was “clunking around” — now he wears carbon-fiber ankle braces because he has problem lifting nan beforehand portion of his feet. They besides support him from turning his ankles.

He typically visits a beingness therapist each 2 weeks, though he admits his treatment has “leveled off.”

He’s had astir 10 surgeries successful nan past decade — his fingers were shaped to make it easier to clasp things for illustration cups and pens and immoderate bony was removed from his correct ft truthful he didn’t bang nan shot of it against nan orthotic.

Ring trains by moving cautiously 2 aliases 3 days a week, arsenic conscionable 1 autumn tin derail his progress. He’s recovered a batch of occurrence utilizing nan elliptical machine, wherever tin return disconnected his orthotics and activity up a sweat because his feet don’t time off nan plates.

The disablement authorities advocate, who sits connected nan NYC Advisory Committee for Transit Accessibility, sewage backmost into marathoning successful 2017 and has completed respective races since then. He vanished last year’s NYC marathon successful 8 hours, 36 minutes and 15 seconds, a gait of 19 minutes, 42 seconds per mile.

Sometimes he doesn’t ever finish, and that’s OK. He discontinue nan PPTC Endurance Fest 50-kilometer title past December astir mile 13, retired of 31, because he was soaked from nan rain. He said to himself he would heal up and decorativeness different race.

“When I was successful nan hospital, missing races, missing nan things I registered for, a shrink came successful to chat pinch me, asked maine what was important,” Ring said.

“My twins were 14 astatine nan time. I want to beryllium a domiciled model. And she’s like, ‘Well, we sewage to fig retired a different measurement for you to beryllium a domiciled model,'” he continued. “Now, I conscionable figure, I sewage to show them that you mightiness autumn into a large hole, and you sewage to effort to climb out.”