BOSTON (WBZ) -
Kristina Ripatti hopes to finish the Boston Marathon's hand cycling race in under two hours.
This year's Boston Marathon has many stories of courage, inspiration and strength, including one of a Los Angeles police officer who was paralyzed when she was shot in the line of duty. Kristina Ripatti is slated to compete in the Boston Marathon after suffering a paralyzing injury to her spinal cord three years ago.
Ripatti, who is married to a fellow police officer, worked in one of the most violent neighborhoods in Los Angeles. On June 3, 2006, while struggling with a robbery suspect, the 10-year veteran was shot. She was wearing a Kevlar vest, but the bullet -- only as big as the eraser on the tip of a pencil -- entered under her arm, went through her chest, and severed her spine. The 33-year-old officer was paralyzed from the chest down.
"Even as you move on and get past things, it's still a huge turning point your life -- a huge turning point in my life," Ripatti said. "I don't think there will ever be a day where it's not front and center." Moving on meant learning a new way of life, and to do that, Ripatti went back to what she knew best.
"Working out and training are a huge part of my life," she explained. "It's been a major thing helping me get through injury. When I'm out training, I'm just working out. That's why I love it so much. It gives me a goal and pushes myself, and I just feel like whole again, like I did before I got hurt."
Before she was hurt, Ripatti and her husband planned to have another child. After the shooting, they weren't sure. But less than two years later, she gave birth to their son, Lucas. Ripatti's next challenge is racing her hand cycle in her first Boston Marathon. She's one of a team representing the LAPD in a friendly competition with their Boston counterparts -- with both sides looking to raise scholarship money for deserving kids.
"The challenge of a marathon was right up my alley; something I was looking for," she said. "I'd like to do it in two hours. It's hard to say because I don't know the course. I'll just push myself as hard as I can, and if I don't hit that two hour mark, I'll try not to be too disappointed with myself."
Quite the contrary. After the journey that has brought Ripatti from the edge of death to the starting line in Hopkinton, she fully appreciates how far she's come. "It's been almost three years. They say it takes two years to get used to it -- to grieve the loss of what you lost through the injury. I've gone through those steps and that process. You come to terms with it, and you get used to and push on and push forward. That's just what I'm trying to do; I want to live my life to the fullest."
Ripatti's husband will also be in Boston to run the marathon with the LAPD team, and their two children, Jordan and Lucas, are making the trip to cheer them both on.
