Bill Phillips Memorial Fund supports double-amputee Marine Corps Marathon competitor

Joe Beimfohr was under the weather much of this past week, but a severe cold did not dampen his spirit as the double-amputee handcycler competed in his 25th marathon.

Beimfohr finished this past Sunday’s Marine Corps Marathon in 2 hours 4 minutes and 49 seconds.

“That’s the slowest I’ve gone in like five years,” said Beimfohr, who was injured by a roadside bomb while serving in Iraq in 2005 and spent one year recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. “But being sick, I couldn’t go as fast as I wanted to.”

Beimfohr’s schedule last week was limited because of the illness. While he participated in an exhibition in Gettysburg, Pa., and raced in the Army Ten Miler the previous weekend, he had to pass up planned rides on the C&O Canal and Washington & Old Dominion trails, as well as a trip to Baltimore.

Still, he had a great time during his 1 1/2 weeks in the Washington area, with his lodging arranged by the DC Touchdown Club and Bill Phillips Memorial Fund, with assistance from the generosity of Marriott. He stayed at the Renaissance Capital View in Arlington.

“It was very nice,” Beimfohr said. “It was a good week. I don’t get back to D.C. often, so I would have liked to take more advantage of it while I was there. But you can’t control when you get sick. … At least I was able to suck it up and finish.”

Freddie Uzeta and General James F. Amos, commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, at the starting line with Joe Beimfohr