"Because I Can" Ride Concludes in Vienna

He could hear the words of his late grandmother spinning through his head as the wheels of his bicycle turned over the countryside.

“If you attack your recovery like you did your career," she'd say, "you'll be able to overcome anything.” 

A bike is the closest Josh Morros, once the youngest ever professional off-road motorcycle racer, has come to racing since a traumatic brain injury forced him off the course and into a 24-day coma. 

Morros, 18, thought not only of the high speed chases he so missed, but also of steady movement. Feet moving in cadence with his wheels and chain. Pedaling with a purpose – to prove that he still could.

Motor bikes had been in Morros' life since he could crawl.

“It was all about the motorcycles when he was a kid– the vroom-vroom’s as he called them,” his mother Teresa said. “I remember at 18-months-old, John would be working on his motorcycle and Josh was just like attached to it. You’d turn your back and he’d climb up on top of the motorcycle.”

John Morros, Josh's father, grew up racing motorcycles in the deserts of Nevada, and encouraged his young son's passion. By the time Josh was a pre-teen, he was a prodigy, quickly becoming a rising star in the sport of off-road racing by exhibiting an unparalleled work ethic. In 2008, at 16, he broke through in the World Off-Road Championship Series (WORCS), becoming the youngest professional ever in off-road racing.

“Josh was the type of person that if he put his mind something, he did it. And he did it with amazing will power and determination,” Teresa said.

During one of his first races on the professional series, Morros trailed the leader by a slim 10-second margin with just 30 miles to go. As his parents refilled his gas tank in the last pit stop, they could see what their son was thinking: now is the time for a breakthrough.

Morros went on the hunt, nothing on his mind but his bike and the dirt still to cover, desperately trying to prove his place among the sport's elite. He hit the accelerator, streaking forward to a top speed of 85 mph, completely unaware that the pivotal moment – not just in the race, but in his entire life – was inches ahead. Morros' bike hit a rock, and in a flash, his head made contact with the rough terrain.

When he reached the hospital, the doctor's prognosis with simple: death.

But after a 24-day coma, Morrows woke up, his parents and cancer-fighting grandmother by his bedside. He'd suffered TBI, which often severely impairs thinking, sensation, language, and emotions for those that survive it.

Somehow, Morros appeared to have only mild lingering symptoms, and his competitive personality was unaffected. A "freak athlete," who despite his slight size, once switched from quarterback to offensive lineman in high school because the protection was poor, Morros found the first few days of therapy frustrating. He urged his trainers to push him harder, though he couldn't do a single push up.

In addition to working hours daily with a physical therapist to regain his strength and motor skills, Morros pledged to champion a new cause: helping other TBI sufferers who could not do what he could.

The cause was undertaken by his grandmother, and her constant reminders of the work it took to get to the top in off-road racing. One day, she presented him with a challenge, asking him to bike across America, not just to get in shape after the injury, but also to inspire other TBI victims who had it worse than him. Basically, to do it because he could, and that in and of itself was a miracle.

“When I was fighting for my life, and she was fighting for hers, she was in the hospital with me,” Morros said. “She said,'I'm not leaving until he does.' And then it was, 'I'm not leaving until he walks out.' So to know she wasn't going to give up on me, that's what allowed me to fight through the injury.”

After his grandmother lost her battle with lung cancer in November 2010, Morros went about making her dream a reality. He set off from Reno, Nevada on June 20. The Morros family has raised money and awareness for TBI, operating a website and asking for donations based on the number of miles Josh rode.

His comeback – a 2,700 mile cross-country bicycle ride to raise money for the injury – took him from his hometown to Vienna, home of the Brain Injury Association of America.

There were 100 mile days, through smooth trails and rough dirt, desert and rugged terrain. And when he arrived at the finish line in Vienna last Friday, a donation of $2,500 from MonaVie, a nutritional product company who employs Josh's parents, was waiting for him.

“Motorcycling used to be who he was,” Teresa said. “The accident helped him realize that that’s just something he does.”

The road back to professional off-road racing won't be easy, but one thing Morros' accident and bike ride have taught him is that fighting uphill can be just as rewarding as coasting down it.

“My favorite thing about the ride was getting to the top of the summits – the satisfaction in knowing that I could," Josh said. "You have to work for anything you do, getting to race downhill, that was my reward. Finishing the bike ride was my reward. Now I want to get back on a motorcyle,” Josh said. “Why quit and walk away from something that you've worked so hard for? When you can just go that extra day, and something may click, and you may get something back. . . It's going to take something bigger than a coma to keep me off of the bike.”