By Khalida Sarwari
Every year on April 19, Ashley Nelson trots out to a stretch of Highway 9 near Fruitvale Avenue where, just seven years ago, the San Jose resident was hit by a drunk driver while on her bike and left for dead.
With her friends in tow, Nelson runs along the road in an act that, for her, has come to symbolize a celebration of her life, one that was changed very drastically that day.
Robert Schiro, the man responsible for the hit-and-run that left the 31-year-old Nelson permanently disabled, served an 18-month prison sentence and was released early for good behavior before he was back behind bars in the summer of 2014 for peeling out of the parking lot of Saratoga’s Casa de Cobre restaurant in his white Cadillac Escalade while intoxicated, then ramming into another car and the wrought-iron gate in front of his own house. This time around, the Saratoga man was slapped with six months in county jail and five years of formal probation.
Nelson says she forgives Schiro, though she’s never met him in person. Her forgiveness, she said, doesn’t overlook the seriousness of his offense or even that it means she is willing to put the incident behind her altogether, but it’s something she had to do in order to move on with her life.
“It was an accident,” she said. “He didn’t mean to run over me. He made a bad decision to drive drunk, and that’s something he has to deal with. But inside my heart, I forgive him for what he did to me. I forgive him for leaving me to die on the side of the road. I forgive his choices.”
Still, life isn’t easy most days for the stay-at-home mother of two, who struggles daily with a traumatic brain injury and paralysis of the left side of her body, caused by a massive stroke while she was in intensive care following her accident. She has spent years in physical and speech therapy to regain her strength, and while it’s been helpful, she says she no longer can race her bike competitively.
“I’m never going to be the person that I was before my accident,” she said. “It’s going to be a daily thing for the rest of my life.”
One thing that has proved beneficial for her is running, an activity she says she didn’t care much for in the past but is doing actively now, especially since she’s had neurologists tell her that while they don’t understand how she does it with her physical disabilities, running has aided tremendously in her recovery process. She is now a registered disabled athlete and para-runner through USA Track & Field.
“Since I started trail running, my brain is getting sharper,” she said.
Nelson took up running shortly after her daughter, Chloe, was born in 2010 and has been active in marathons and even ultra-marathons since. One of those races is the Great Race, which she signed up for for the first time in 2011. Sponsored by the Los Gatos Rotary Club, the four-mile race takes place every year in April and has become a local tradition for runners from the neighboring communities of Los Gatos and Saratoga. Now in its 39th year, the run started in 1978 when Bill Glennon, the then-mayor of Saratoga, suggested a “great race” between the neighboring communities, with the community registering the most runners to be awarded the Glennon Cup.
“I chose to do the Great Race because it’s very symbolic,” said Nelson. “It’s on the calendar [month] of my accident and it runs on the same spot where I was left to die. Something about running past that spot, it’s emotional for me, but it’s a great accomplishment for me because it reminds me how far I’ve come in my recovery.”
Nelson will be the honorary starter at this year’s Great Race, which takes place April 24, and plans to run in it as well.
To learn more about the Great Race or to register, visit bit.ly/GreatRace2016LG.
