Jacob Rainey has been getting his steps in – more than 508,000 in January alone.
“I’m just trying to see what I’m made of,” said the 2017 University of Virginia graduate who once played high school football on a prosthetic leg. “I haven’t had a good challenge in a while.”
From casual strolls with his dog, Rags, a boxer-labrador mix, to lengthy hikes along the Appalachian Trail, Rainey aims for 10 miles a day. And it’s not just for his health.
The 32-year-old amputee is training to climb Mount Kilimanjaro with fellow UVA alumnus Chris Long, among others, as part of the .
The crew begins their journey up Africa’s tallest mountain next week.
The Blue Ridge Mountains provide a stunning backdrop to one of Rainey’s training hikes. In anticipation of his Mount Kilimanjaro climb with the Waterboys foundation, Rainey aims to log 10 miles a day. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)
“You can’t let any sort of outside perception or perceived limitations impact what you do in life,” Rainey said. “So, hopefully that message and this journey can help inspire another person or two somewhere out there.”
Rainey has a history of pushing limits. As a senior at Woodberry Forest School in Central Virginia, the quarterback when he returned to the football field a year after suffering an on-field injury that resulted in the amputation of his right leg above the knee.
On a prosthetic leg in 2012, Rainey threw for 141 yards and three touchdowns over five games.
Long, then in his fifth NFL season with the St. Louis Rams, admired Rainey’s story from afar.
“It was hard for me to imagine, like the rarity of losing your leg while playing football,” Long said. “But somebody like that, they have a choice. I think a lot of us would feel sorry for ourselves – and maybe he did at some point, but, boy, he’s never shown it.
Rainey calls Rags, his boxer-labrador mix, a “big beneficiary” of the Mount Kilimanjaro training. “We walk a lot,” he said. “Rags loves it.” (Contributed photo)
“And I think that’s pretty inspiring.”
Rainey still has the Facebook messages from 15 years ago, when Long, a fellow Charlottesville native, reached out with words of encouragement following his injury. The two remained in touch as Rainey went on to spend .
“For a kid from Charlottesville, Chris is a legend and obviously has a lot going on and is famous and didn’t have to do that,” Rainey said, “but he still goes out of his way to support me. It meant a lot.”
So now Rainey is paying it forward and raising money and awareness for Long’s foundation.
Since its founding in 2015, Waterboys has helped provide access to clean water to 600,000 individuals in East Africa and the United States. Rainey, like the 10 others attempting to summit Mount Kilimanjaro alongside Long next week, has a . As a result, two more deep-borehole wells will be built in Tanzania.
“I’m in a position where I can help support him and the things that matter to him,” Rainey said. “It was a no-brainer for me to do this.”
