COEUR d'ALENE - Brenden Nichols didn't win the Spring Dash on Sunday.

He didn't even walk the 5-mile course.

But the fact that the 18-year-old finished, on a recumbent bike, was all the reason his father needed to boast with great pride of his son's courage and determination.

"Today was a big test for him to get going," Ken Nichols said. "He made it awesome."

"The kid can't walk and he's out there on a bike going 5 miles with everybody at the Spring Dash," Ken Nichols continued. "He's an awesome kid."

Brenden was badly injured in a car accident last October. The college freshman suffered a broken neck and ribs, a collapsed lung and brain trauma.

Doctors say the Coeur d'Alene man's recovering is going well.

"He is surpassing all their expectations in terms of rehab," Ken Nichols said. "It takes a lot of time."

But Brenden, he added, is impatient.

"Brenden's expectations are a lot higher than that. He's always been an overachiever who really likes to show everybody what he can do. I think today was one of those things where he was showing everybody what he can do."

Brenden's treatment includes five days a week in a hyperbaric chamber, which increases the oxygen level in his blood and speeds the healing process.

He also undergoes pool therapy three times a week, and speech therapy.

"There's a whole bunch of things that we're doing," Ken Nichols said.

Including training together.

The two started and finished Sunday's race side by side, though there were moments Brenden, wearing glasses, a black shirt, shorts and helmet, pushed ahead - alone.

"There were times I couldn't keep up running," Ken said.

They finished in about an hour. It was Brenden's longest bike ride since last fall, when he was training for Ironman.

Brenden, who is slowly regaining his ability to speak, gave two thumbs up when asked how he was feeling after Sunday's Dash.

His father said his son still hopes to complete an Ironman, and the Dash was just the start of his journey.

"We're on our way back to it, someday," he said.

Brenden smiled and nodded as he listened to his dad, and then, slowly but clearly, added one more word.

"Soon."