By Duggan Flanakin
Tuesday, April 21, 2026
Ken White III (Kenny) wakes up every morning thankful for his hard-earned recovery from a freak accident that at first left him a quadriplegic. But come next September, if all goes well, he will once again put on his running shoes for the third annual Break Your Neck 5K race on Sept. 12, 2026. White is even gearing up for a possible 10K run.
White credits his accident with saving his life — not almost ending it. As he explains, at age 38 he had been an alcoholic for over half his life. He was also a husband and father with a great job and wonderful parents. Yet, on the inside, he says his life was a disaster zone.
On that fateful night, Nov. 15, 2023, he was playing with his young daughters when he decided to try a somersault off an ottoman. Instead, as he came down, he hit his head so hard that his C6 vertebrae exploded — and he did not even realize his legs were on the floor rather than up in the air.
Much has been written about White’s first year after the accident — from his 15-minute life flight from Pueblo to UC Health Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs, where Dr. Rahul Singh whisked him into the operating room for an 11-hour procedure that literally saved his life, to his slow but steady recovery thanks to being accepted into “one of the best spinal rehabilitation facilities in America,” Craig Rehabilitation Hospital in Englewood.
By the end of February 2024, White was taking his first slow steps, and by April he had decided to start jogging. “So we started this crazy journey,” says White. “One day, I ran around the outpatient apartment complex and my four-year-old daughter beat me.”
Yet his physical recovery paled in White’s own eyes compared to his realization that alcohol had been wrecking his life — and how the miracle of surviving his own folly was inspiring him to give back to the community and the doctors who both saved his life and offered him help as he determined to make a difference.
And then he got this hare-brained idea: to sponsor and “run” in a five-kilometer race at a time when he was still in a wheelchair most of the day. “I had decided I had been helped so much that I should pay it forward,” White says. “I was really fragile, yet I determined to train to be able to finish the race myself — though I knew I would finish long after everyone else.”
White spoke with Todd Kelly, President and CEO of the Colorado State University Pueblo Foundation, who immediately offered the CSU Pueblo Thunderbowl, the university’s football and track facility, for the race. The local TV station got wind of the story and wrote an article about White’s injury and his plans for the 5K race. There was no backing out.
On the day of the race, 300 people showed up. White set a personal goal of 45 minutes for the 5K run — 15 minutes per mile on a track that included two inclines. At approximately mile two, White says he began to feel really tired but one of his friends ran with him to the finish line.
“I had my Hallmark Moment,” White says as they crossed the finish line with student athletes and about 40 onlookers cheering him on. “It was so amazing — not just because I finished the race, but because I raised $25,000 for the Dr. Singh nursing scholarship named after the man who saved my life.”
To White, CSU Pueblo — in his hometown — is an incredible part of the city, the lifeblood of the community, and his alma mater. As a youngster, he attended camps for piano, guitar, and basketball there.
That the university would cosponsor his charity run made White even more determined to thank the past and future nurses and doctors trained at CSU Pueblo for helping bring him back from the edge of darkness.
Last September, White hosted the second annual Break Your Neck 5K and completed his own run in just 38 minutes. The overflow crowd of about 500 cheered him on, and the race brought in another $30,000 for the mission.
One of those cheering him on was his sister Kristyn White Davis, who serves as vice president of Enrollment Management, Marketing, & Extended Studies at CSU Pueblo.
Holding the race for a second year — with year three already on the calendar — is also a testimony to White that his broken neck and spinal cord injuries prevented his young daughters from the throes of an alcoholic father during their formative years. “My hands,” he says, “were the price of admission to being a great dad and saving my marriage.”
White is not just running for glory. He recently completed 85 miles of a planned 100-mile bike ride but opted against the final leg up a mountain road. He also began taking his daughter to school after his athlete wife tore her Achilles.
Looking back, White says his train wreck was unstoppable — until he broke his neck and lived. Overcoming paralysis was not as hard as showing each other grace, taking time with God to make an intentional plan to build a positive future.
When White does begin to falter, his 3-year-old daughter says, “Play with me,” and all his pain — and grousing — melts away.
