Young man with cerebral palsy completes Red Deer Spartan Race

One of this year’s contestants at the Spartan Race in Red Deer is not unfamiliar to obstacles.

The course represents many challenges, including a 10 foot wall and crawling through knee-deep mud, but 19-year-old Phil Arsenault, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy when he was a kid, is up for the challenge.

“I’m a person that loves challenges, so when an opportunity like the Spartan Race came along, I said ‘sure, I’d like to give it a shot,” Arsenault said. “I think it’s important because I show myself that, yeah, I have a disability, but I do things differently in order to overcome the obstacles.”

PHOTOS

One of the contestants at the Spartan Race, a 19-year-old with cerebral palsy, is used to dealing with challenges.

This is Arsenault’s fourth spartan race this summer. It allows him to both challenge himself and help a place that has taken good care of him.

“I’ve been a patient [at the Shriners Hospital] growing up, so now that I’m older, I see how much work they’ve done for me and I want to give back to them,” he said.

Arsenault is not done pushing himself. His dreams are too big to be held back by his disease.

“I’d like to try and make it to the Olympics, the Paralympics in the future,” Arsenault concluded. “I’m going to start looking into that.”

Click here for more information about Arsenault and his charity work with the Shriners Hospital.

With files from Frazer Snowdon

Article Resources:http://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/