Olathe ? One year ago, a stroke left Marc Hardin unable to feed himself. He could barely open his eyes.

On Monday, he ran in the Boston Marathon, finishing in four hours, 20 minutes.

The elite runners group is seen shadowed by security on bicycles, background, as they make their way through Wellesley, Mass. Increased security didn't dampen the 106th Boston Marathon on Monday.

Hardin, an avid runner and biking enthusiast from Olathe who dreamed of returning to the famed race, suffered a disabling stroke on April 21, 2001, his daughter Lydia’s sixth birthday. It left him virtually helpless. But the 51-year-old veterinarian didn’t quit.

He walked himself back into shape, even walking a Kansas City run just six weeks after his stroke.

By Jan. 6, he was in Orlando, Fla., for the Disney Marathon and a seventh attempt to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

“I knew that, even if everything went right, it still was not going to be easy,” Hardin said.

It wasn’t.

Hardin was placed in a group that definitely was not out to post a Boston Marathon qualifying time of 3 hours, 30 minutes.

“I remember seeing a woman who had a water bottle in her hand, a few packets of some carbohydrate snack and her headphones on,” Hardin said. “So I asked her how fast she planned on doing the marathon. She said seven hours.”

Hardin had been put in a group of walkers by mistake. He began the race by battling through the pack of shoulder-to-shoulder walkers. He finished 14 minutes over the time he needed to qualify for Boston.

But with help from the American Stroke Association, he got a waiver from the Boston Marathon, and ran in Monday’s race.

“I’ve done the race before, but I don’t think any of them will mean as much to me as this one,” Hardin said.

Last week, Hardin was nervous for two reasons. One, he’s a stroke victim. Two, he was concerned about being able to finish. He has been battling a leg injury caused by overuse that has affected his endurance.

Consequently, Hardin said he’s “only about 85 percent” in shape. Hardin has run the Boston Marathon in less than three hours before, finishing in 2 hours, 57 minutes in 1987 but that was long before his stroke. His goal Monday was to finish the race in less than four hours.

Hardin has hung onto the positive outlook that helped him recover.

“Work the best with what you have,” Hardin said. “I guarantee that if the stroke paralyzed me, I would be in the wheelchair divisions of races.”