Rotorua's Kerry Suter is in ICU in Auckland's Middlemore Hospital with his partner Ali Pottinger by his side. Photo / Supplied
In a moment, the two-time ultramarathon winner couldn't move. His partner is by his side in ICU holding a hand that can't feel hers. Cira Olivier reports.
"My body just melted over my head as I hit the ground."
This is the moment two-time ultramarathon winner and renowned running coach Kerry Suter's life changed forever.
"It felt like all of the bones had been taken out of my body and I just completely flopped onto the ground."
Just a week earlier, he was running across all three volcanoes in Tongariro National Park - and doing it in 18 hours.
Now, he can't move his legs or arms, he says through shallow breaths from his ICU bed in Auckland's Middlemore Hospital.
On Saturday, Suter and two friends were mountain biking in Rotorua's Whakarewarewa Forest on a trail he hadn't done before but had walked through, cleared and sized up days earlier.
He couldn't get enough speed coming up to the jump, he said.
He went over his handlebars and landed on his full-face helmet, breaking and dislocating his neck and compacting his spinal cord.
"It keeps me awake at night knowing there was a bailout to the side and I was quite happy not doing the jump, but here I am," he said through paced speech.
One friend held his hand and squeezed it, but he couldn't feel it. The other called the Rotorua Mountain Bike Club First Response Unit who were there almost instantly.
"I asked where my legs were and he said they were bent out sideways. They straightened them and I felt nothing.
"It was in those moments that I realised how serious it was."
Suter says the medic "knew it was bad but he did everything right, and I'm really grateful".
The team's "invaluable" knowledge of the trails meant he quickly got to the ambulance, then to the helicopter, bound for the hospital.
Suter says the swift response of his friends and the forest medics are the reason he survived.
He's in the intensive care unit to get him through the nights with his breathing shallow, creating a risk of infection, but he hopes to be out later this week.
His body has an unfamiliar stillness, his neck in a brace, and medical apparatus surround him.
"It's quite scary."
Once his blood pressure stabilises, he will begin months of rehab in another ward.
"I'll never be running again which is hard... running has been my life."
Suter's been running for 15 years and the couple owned Squadrun, an online tailored running coaching programme in Australasia.
He suspects he isn't going to be a hands-on coach "any time soon", which is really getting to him.
"It's my job to help people, and now I can't, and I need help," he says, holding back the tears.
He does not like to feel like a burden on others but says he needs to get through this for his daughters.
Suter says he's been MC for major running events and hopes he will still be able to see people achieving amazing things.
"Even if I can't."
He said it is "highly unlikely" he will be able to do what he once could, and now he needs to find gratitude in what he could achieve.
He would be taking each day at a time and says there are "very tough times ahead".
"I've done a lot in my life, so I guess I'm happy for what I have achieved. I guess I have to look at what the next phase will be for me."
His partner, Ali Pottinger, says they still do not know to what extent he'll improve.
"You don't have a lot if you don't have hope, so we're going to hope for the best.
Pottinger says Suter feels like he will not be able to help others anymore but she believes he has more to give, regardless of what happens.
"You're reminding them that we need to live our lives, appreciate those small things like holding your partner's hand or going for a walk. To be positive, to have a sense of humour."
"Kerry is the most determined person I know," she says through tears.
"I know he's going to show up every day. He's got all the right traits to come through this in the best possible way.
"We know the power of a really strong mindset and giving it your best every day, and that's what we're going to do."
She is grateful he is still here, able to talk, laugh, smile and make his usual jokes.
The pandemic added a layer of fear to the "horrific and complicated" situation — she is scared of getting Covid and not being able to see him or giving it to him.
"It makes you realise how much we need to protect our health system - for when things go sideways as it has for us - that the hospital is able to take you."
She says everyone needs to get vaccinated, boosted and value the health system.
Everyone who has worked with Kerry has been "amazing, helpful, and professional".
As of yesterday afternoon, two fundraising pages set up by running communities the couple are part of in New Zealand and Australia had raised NZ$78,151 since Sunday.
All money raised will go directly to the couple to support rehab and other costs.
Both page descriptions wrote that the couple were "two of the most generous and inspiring people we know".
"Two people who literally get us to the start line, share our journey training, racing and through life," it read.
Pottinger is speechless about the love and support, both through words and finances, that have been flowing in.
She says she wants to give Suter the best possible care and support, and anything he needs along the way.
Through tears, she said she wants people to know how vital first response staff are, and has encouraged friends to donate to organisations that provide those services.
She says they are lucky to have loved ones willing and able to support, and it plays on her mind that others were not in the position they were.
Rotorua Mountain Bike Club's first response co-ordinator Barbara Jenks says there have been "overwhelming" and "generous" donations from the couples' friends since Suter's accident.
She says the medics are "essential" to the forest, equipped for any injury of any forest user.
A Givealittle and Go Fund Me page has been set up for the family's road ahead.
The project includes an 'attractive bath complex' using geothermal fluids.