CHICAGO -- If you're looking for somebody to cheer for during Sunday's marathon, Steve Baskis is your man.

The 23-year-old Iraq veteran lost his sight last year when a roadside bomb exploded next to the vehicle he was driving. One of his best friends, Victor Cota, was just a few feet away from him at the time and lost his life. Instead of falling apart, though, Baskis did exactly the opposite. He needed an outlet for competitiveness and he wanted to show people that life doesn't end just because you lose your vision. After numerous surgeries to repair his injuries, Baskis started training. With the help of sighted rider, he began biking, and recently competed in a half-Ironman competition in Georgia, during which he completed a 56-mile bike ride and a 13.1-mile run.

"I like proving people wrong," Baskis told me during our phone conversation earlier this week. "A lot of people tell you you can't do something or they think you can't do this or that before they even give you a chance."

That's one of the reasons why Baskis has decided to participate in his first full-length marathon this weekend. He wants to motivate people to accomplish the types of goals they think they can't reach. But he's not looking for extra pats on the back in the process.

"I guess people say that [my story] is inspirational and stuff," Baskis admits now. "At first, I didn't think it was; I just thought I was doing [what everybody else did]. I'm 23, I'm young -- I had plans to do sports and other things. I don't think I'd be looked at any different than anybody else if I was doing it and I was able-bodied, of course. But because I still have that drive and that willpower to push on, people really look at it a little bit differently when someone's totally blind and they're running."

Baskis will have a little help along the way on Sunday, thanks to his brother, Kevin, and his close friend, Clint Vericker. Both men will be running with Steve this weekend and both will be competing in their first marathon as well. It's clear that Baskis' attitude has already rubbed off on the people who are close to him.

"He's always had a positive outlook," Vericker says of his friend. "I can't say that I would have [had a positive attitude] like that ... He was just so happy that he was still alive. He came home and he was safe eventually, but never once has he seemed really down and negative. He never said 'I can't.' He's always been [saying] 'I can' and stuff like that, and that seems really hard. That's something I don't think I could do if I was in his shoes. He's really great about that stuff."

Vericker, a former Marine and fellow Iraq veteran, admits that had it not been for Baskis he probably wouldn't even be participating in the marathon in the first place. Now that he is, he has pushed himself hard in training to be there for his friend.

"I think after everything happened, [Steve] really felt like people were treating him like he can't do things [and] that he was having problems and always had to be helped and stuff like that," Vericker says. "And he does have to be helped but he wants to do so many things, he just needs this little bit of help, he needs someone for this [marathon] to direct him through the course. Anything I can do to help, I'll be more than happy to. He's always helped me out, whenever I need help, well before he was hurt or anything like that."

While they may not finish the race in the fastest time, giving up is not an option. That is one of the biggest messages that the Glen Ellyn resident wants to get across.

"No matter what you've been through, whatever you've lost, you should never give up," Baskis says. "You make the best of whatever you've got and run with it. That's definitely a big thing I always tell people: Never give up. That's one thing I like for the blind community, 'cause it's such a big deal to me, I want to inspire guys who are timid and don't go out and do things like sports or whatever, that they can do it, they can see another blind individual doing something. There's plenty of us; there's plenty of other guys and gals doing it, but I'm new to it. I'm young and I hope to challenge a bunch of other people whether they're blind or sighted."

Now those are some words to live by. Here are some of the other parts of our conversation ...

Nick Friedell: When you're competing, what are the emotions that you're feeling, after all that you've been through?

Steve Baskis: A number of different things, because from my perspective, it's very different -- I'm just staring into black -- so my mind is definitely wandering. I'm just thinking about what maybe I'm passing, what's going on around me at that moment, who might be passing me and who I'm passing. It could be that. I think a lot about what motivates me, like my squad who saved my life in Iraq and my buddy who died. I think about how hard it was for them to work through that actual time and experience and it kind of just motivates me to push harder. That's some of the stuff that goes through my mind. There's probably a thousand different things.

But it's really different. When I'm running, I'm concentrating on my balance and every step that I take 'cause it's weird when you're just staring into black and you're also concentrating on your guide. I have to have a guide that kind of runs with me ... and he just gives me a good idea of where I'm going. So I'm usually tethered to him or right next to him holding his arm.

NF: What's the training been like? Have you guys all been training together?

SB: I grew up all over the country, but hometown is kind of central Illinois, near Champaign, and my buddy Clint, he lives down there. And my brother Kevin [has] lived in Kentucky, so we've all been training on our own and we're just gonna get together in Chicago and do the run. It's probably not the best way to go about it. I don't know about my buddy and my brother, but my routine hasn't been the most rock-solid training routine 'cause I've been doing a lot of other things and it's been kind of crazy. I just moved. But I've gotten a good amount of training. I've been out to the Olympic training center a couple weeks ago and did a training camp, but it was cycling.

Then I did the half-Ironman, which really was my first big thing since I've been injured. I was injured a year and four months ago on May 13, 2008. I really wanted to test myself and see whether I still had that "never give up" attitude -- for the physically demanding kind of things. I really learned down in Georgia this past week or so ago. The marathon would just be another thing like that and I'm hoping just basically to finish strong and finish. Next year, I plan on doing a full Ironman in Lake Placid, N.Y., and that'll include a full marathon. The last portion is 26.2 miles. But total, with the swim and the bike [portions], it's 140 [miles], I think. So I'm gonna train the rest of the winner, especially in cycling, 'cause that's like my bread and butter. I really enjoy the tandem cycling, and then on top of [that] doing swimming and running. We're all just kind of new at running a marathon and we've really tried on our own.

NF: After everything you've been through, how did you stay so motivated to continue to do all this stuff and stay so active?

SB: Most military guys will tell you, the ones especially that are really into training and doing different things, I guess there's a lot of reasons why I'm kinda jumping on all these sports -- I love competing. I've always been competitive; I've always been very athletic. In the military, I was hoping to do something. I'm still [on] active duty. I'm still [part of the] U.S. Army. I was an infantryman -- 11 Bravo -- in the Army, basically a grunt. I was trying to pursue special operations, Special Forces, and I was going to volunteer for selection as they call it. I was hoping to make it back from my tour of duty in Iraq and be good to go for selection and be challenged in a bunch of different ways -- mentally, physically, and just get a lot of good training and enjoy an elite group.

I didn't get that chance. One thing is, my life's changed totally. I started a new life on May 13, [2008] and I still want to challenge myself. The Ironman was put together by Navy SEALs a long time ago and it just really resembles some of things you do in the military. Whether you're doing a forced march with a 60-pound pack or more or however many, 10, 20, 30 miles. It's very similar, in a different way, to doing things in the military. I really just enjoy that -- I just enjoy all the stuff and I'm trying to live my life to the fullest.

I'm kinda in a transitional period. I'm not working. I'm going through my medical evaluation board. I lost a lot of weight. I've got nerve damage in my left arm. My left hand doesn't work well. Next to that, my worst injury is in my head, behind my eyes, in my sinus cavities, and in my eyes itself. Other than that, I got hit in both my legs and just shrapnel here or there. My right knee was operated on a couple of times and my lower left leg, along with both my arms, my neck and my head. It's all minor stuff. There's guys that are worse off than me. I'm just lucky and I'm very fortunate that I made it through that ordeal and I made it back. I'm thankful that I'm alive and I just want to push hard.

I don't know how [exactly] to say it, but there's a whole bunch to it. I love doing this stuff and it gets me back into shape. I was in great shape before I got injured and I just don't feel like I'm there yet, still. Even though I did all right [in the] half-Ironman, I think we finished in like seven hours. It was 70 miles in like seven hours or something like that. Next year I want to concentrate on crushing the time.

This year was just motivating me to exercise and try to improve my health. That's another thing. I laid around most of last year, between May and October and didn't do a lot of work, lost a lot of weight. So I'm a skinny guy now, I never was a big guy, but I'm skinnier now and I'm doing a lot of cardio which doesn't help with gaining weight (laughs). But yeah, that's what's going on.

NF: What do you think you've learned the most since the accident?

SB: You learn a lot about yourself. I've learned I'm the same person. The way I think, the drive, the motivation, the willpower was the same as before. I had it before, I did real well in things and I pushed hard, pushed myself to the limit. I think that I learned that, I don't know, you grow up even faster. I thought I was pretty mature already as a 23-year-old; doing some of the things that we did and the training. And then you lose something that's really important to you, just your mobility and driving, anything like that. Just your independence. You learn a lot about yourself and how to basically cope with living with a disability.

It's funny -- everybody always asks me, "Man, you have such a great attitude, were you ever down, really?" I don't think I was ever really down, down. The biggest thing was that I was upset my buddy died right next to me, and we lost other guys over there, but he was real close and that day I was lucky -- an arm's length distance made a difference, I guess. It's just -- I'm good to go, I'm here and I gotta make the best of it.

NF: Do you feel like when you're competing, that you're running/biking for people?

SB: Yeah. Everybody hurts at certain moments when they're doing some endurance or long-distance race, and you gotta really reach deep down inside to find that drive to keep going and not quit. I really think about my buddy who died and anybody who's been injured; there's so many other guys who are worse off than me. They lost their legs, I've got friends that lost both their legs and are blind, and they have a great attitude like me. Whether they lost their arm, anything. They inspire me to work harder and do better, especially when they have great attitudes and they're trying to do stuff like hand cycling or whatever they can to compete and enjoy life and move on.

NF: After what you've overcome and what you've done now, is there anything you feel like you can't do?

SB: Yeah, I feel limited in some things but, I just really try my hardest with everything I used to do. And if I can't do it like I did before that's just how it is. I push hard in anything I can still excel in. If I can get a guy that's as fast as me and we can beat the field in whatever kind of race we're doing, then I feel good that I can challenge able-bodied guys, whether they're men or women, and show them that even after -- and prove to some of the guys who come back that are injured -- or anybody [who] gets injured, whether they're civilian or military, they can still push hard and come out on top with things.

Of course, this year I don't plan on finishing this marathon in any crazy speed. I'm just out there to try to see where my body is. I knew where my body was before and the Ironman I just did, and some of the things that I plan to do here in the future ... this [marathon] is really doing to help me out, figuring out where my training should be.

NF: You're getting married here in a few months. Has your fiancée ever said, "Steve, this is crazy," or has she been behind you all the time?

SB: No, my whole family supports me in everything I do, and that helps out a lot. You gotta have a great support network and they're always there for me. They were there for me as soon as I came back from Iraq and were by my side. It is kind of crazy to go out and do a triathlon or a marathon -- what's the reason for doing it? Maybe it's just 'cause the majority of the people on the planet don't do something like that and you can and you can push yourself.

I think when you push your body to the limit, you understand, especially in the military when you're doing different things, that you really understand how far your body can go in doing things. It's almost a surprise when you first learn [and] you're like, "Man, I didn't know I had that in me." Some people have a bad experience and some people have a great experience and I had a good one. I love competing just like anybody else who probably does it.

NF: What are some of the other goals you want to accomplish?

SB: I want to go to school. I want to get a college degree. I really want to pursue my doctoral degree and along the side pursue sports. And then work of course, again, when I have an idea of where I want to work. But sports definitely, one of the big things [is] just recently I was talking about cycling and the Olympic training center out in Colorado Springs, I was just there twice this year. Just recently before the half-Ironman, I was there and did a lot of cycling. I don't know how many hundreds of miles in a week. I really want to try to make it on the national team, the Paralympic national cycling team -- 2012 is a possibility and making to the London Games. It would be great.

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