People: Mar. 10, 1997

THE REAL MARATHON MAN

"I don't think of 40-mile-an-hour winds and zero-degree weather as a big deal," says JOHN FAHNER-VIHTELIC. That's probably because he has endured far worse. In 1977 he lay for 16 days without food, pinned above the dashboard of his station wagon after it plunged 150 ft. off an embankment in Washington State. He escaped with his life (partly by throwing his shirt into a nearby stream and sucking the moisture out of it), but not all of his limbs. The loss of his left leg hasn't slowed the 48-year-old down, though. On Feb. 17, the ex-Green Beret...

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