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Sammy Linebaugh ReportingImagine riding your bike from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas. Then, think about doing it without use of your legs and only limited use of your arms.
Sound impossible? A Tooele man doesn't think so and has set out on such a journey.
Chad Hymas left downtown Salt Lake about five o'clock Thursday morning. He has mapped out a course all the way to Las Vegas and he says he wants to set a world record. But more than that, he says he's doing it for his two young boys, his wife and all those who help him succeed everyday and have supported him in a goal some would think simply couldn't be done.
Christian Hymas, Chad's Son: "He just goes anywhere and he uses his hands to push the wheels."
Shondell Hymas, Chad's Wife: “I get way ahead and I look back and I see him coming over the hill or something, it just makes you get all tingly inside."
After a farming accident left Chad Hymas paralyzed two years ago with only partial use of his arms, the husband and father of two adjusted his expectations of himself. Now, they're even higher.
Laureen Hymas, Chad's Mother: "He's got these goals and it has to be impossible, or almost impossible for him to reach; otherwise he wouldn't go for it."
With help from police escorts Chad has set a goal to bike from Salt Lake to Las Vegas with no deadline, only determination to get there.
Chad Hymas: "I'm at a turtle's pace up the hills. I'm two miles an hour if I'm lucky. That's a fact, but hey, downhill I'm pushing 25, 28 miles an hour…It feels really good when those semis go by and that big old wift of wind goes by and gives me a nice little push. I feel that.”
Chad hopes to average about 50 miles a day, but plans to do most of his riding at night.
Chad Hymas: "I'll get back on the road about 11 o'clock at night and go ‘til anywhere between five, six, seven or eight in the morning.”
If all goes as expected, he'll hit the Las Vegas strip a week from Sunday. Until then, he says, like any challenge, he'll take it.
When he's not biking, Chad Hymas makes his living as a motivational speaker.
