1995 to now, in the order it happened

Enlisted

He came in through aviation operations and moved to infantry. Nothing about the first years suggested what the last ones would ask of him.

Ranger School, Class 5-04

Jumpmaster, Pathfinder and Air Assault alongside it. The standards he now talks about on stage were set here, not afterwards.

Deployed with the 82nd Airborne

A reconnaissance of a suspected explosives distributor. The platoon took machine-gun fire.

Pressure-plate IED

Advancing after the contact, he stepped on a pressure-plate improvised explosive device. Both legs were amputated. He also sustained severe internal injuries and a disfigured right hand.

He woke up

His wife was there when he did. The first weeks were about staying alive; everything after that was a decision he had to keep making.

The pool

Water first, because it was the only place the weight came off. David Jay photographed this period for The Unknown Soldier.

A degree and a voice

He finished his Bachelor's in Business Administration from a hospital bed and started cultivating the speaking voice he uses now. He treated every trial as a classroom — somewhere to study, so that one day he could teach other people how to get through their own.

Boston Marathon, finished

Twenty-one months after the IED he crossed the line on Boylston Street on prosthetics.

All seven majors. One of two.

Chicago, New York, London, Berlin, Tokyo and Sydney followed Boston — all seven World Marathon Majors, on prosthetics. Roughly 5,000 runners have finished all seven. Five of them are amputees. Two are double amputees. Cedric is one of the two.

Eleven Bostons. Four Chicagos. Three New Yorks. Three runnings of the 48.6-mile Disney series, the Marine Corps 50K ultra, and several 70.3-mile Half Ironmans, swim included. He is training now for his first full 140.6.

On stage

Author of The Making Point, published February 2019, with a second book — Marathons, Mindset and Mercy — finished. His story is in development for the screen under the title Endurance, and he has been featured on CBS, NBC, ABC, HBO and the NFL Network.

He works now as a motivational and leadership speaker to corporate, military, university, healthcare, faith and government audiences. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Achilles International and still races with the Achilles Freedom Team, sits on the Gary Sinise Foundation's Ambassadors Council, and is an ambassador for Semper Fi & America's Fund. He has been married to Khieda King since October 2000; they have two daughters, Amari and Khayma.