I made a new friend last weekend. His name is Billy. Billy was in town with approximately 70 other athletes from around the nation to compete in a triathlon Monday morning. This race consisted of the traditional swim, bike, and run that other triathlons consist of; however, this one had a few extra "obstacles" or "events" thrown in as well. These events may have included one-armed swimming, one-legged stair climbing, adding and/or removing extra equipment not usually used by triathletes, and many other unconventional "tasks." You see, Billy was in Austin to compete at the US Paratriathlon Championships. "Paratriathlon?" you may ask. Yes, paratriathlon: competing in the sport of triathlon as a disabled, or physically-challenged athlete. Each of the 70 or so athletes were competing with disabilities ranging from multiple amputations to blindness. The Paratri championships were held in conjunction with the CapTex triathlon, a staple in the Austin, Texas triathlon-scene, held every Memorial Day weekend. This year's event drew over 3000 athletes. The professional division drew some of the nation's top triathletes vying for cash prizes. The paratriathletes were vying for spots on the US team going to the World Championships in New Zealand this fall. The amount of talent on hand among the "able-bodied" age-group and professional athletes was incredible. However, I must say it was the paratriathletes who left me completely awe-stricken, and at times fighting back tears.
Back to Billy. My company was contacted a few weeks ago regarding volunteering for CapTex. I volunteered to round up the effort for my co-workers and we were scheduled to work at the swim exit. We were later contacted and asked if some of us wouldn't mind being "handlers" for the challenged athletes. I jumped on the opportunity immediately, wanting to have a bigger hand in the paratriathlon event. A few of my co-workers were assigned to athletes as well. My company is a public company that provides orthotics (any type of external brace or device...not just the things you put in your shoes) and prosthetics (collectively known as "O&P"). We have over 700 locations across the US and serve thousands of patients a year. I have been wanting to feel more connected to the work that we do, but that just is not always easy when you are working in the finance department at the corporate headquarters...they don't exactly let us around the patients too often! I have seen a few amputees around town running or biking and always want to stop and say "Hey! Where did you get your leg?" but have not so much formulated the best way to actually start that conversation, so usually I am just left wondering if they happen to be a patient of my company and what their story is. Long story short, it is almost comedic they asked us to be handlers, assuming we may have specific experience considering we work for the largest O&P provider in the US. Yes, we work there...but at Corporate...we play with computers and spreadsheets...not arms and legs.
So I still haven't gotten back to Billy. While I have about zero experience with the typical patient at my company or the typical athlete that may have been here for the paratriathlon, I do have experience as a triathlete myself, so I was hoping that at least would help a bit. Each handler was assigned an athlete in the week before the race. We were given each other's contact information and told about a meeting the afternoon before the race where we could meet and discuss overall rules for the race, athletes, and handlers as well as go over individual race plans for each athlete. I had emailed with Billy prior to the meeting and he explained he had partial paralysis on his left side, but that he was fully ambulatory and that he wouldn't necessarily need much help because for the most part it was faster if he did it for himself...followed by a smiley face. Safe to say I was going to get off pretty easy in this gig! We arranged to meet at the Sunday afternoon meeting. I arrived at the meeting and before I even sat down, I had to do my best to keep my jaw off the ground and keep from staring. Looking at each of these people from the neck up, you saw nothing but a typical athlete. You could see the excitement and nerves plastered across their faces that would come along with any race of this caliber. Then you looked down, beyond their faces, and wow. Missing limbs, prosthetic legs, wheelchairs supporting grossly atrophied legs, limbs that were attached but practically useless, and everything in between. Each of these athletes looked incredibly fit - look at how fit you have to be to do a triathlon with all body parts working correctly...then take out one or more of those functioning parts and you can understand just how fit these people are. The handler coordinator introduced each handler to their athlete and I met Billy. Billy was young and fit and at first I had a hard time even seeing any sort of physical abnormality. It wasn't until we walked to the transition area after the meeting that I saw his limp. I learned Billy was from New York City and was actually a patient of my company! How cool! I was thrilled to meet one of our patients. Hanger makes the lower leg brace he uses on his left leg while running. Billy and I walked through what he would be needing before and during the race and talked about his race goals. I met several of his friends and fellow teammates on the Achilles International team. Billy was a little concerned about arriving at the race Monday morning early enough to get everything taken care of because he was lodging and traveling with a big group. I asked if it would help if I drove to pick him up and take him to the race and he said that would be awesome. 5am. I'll be there. Sounds awesome. Until you go to bed after midnight the night before :-)
I picked Billy up bright (...or dark) and early Monday morning and we were on our way. I couldn't find a way across the river downtown because the streets were already closed for the race. Not sure I was helping his time concerns in the least! I was finally able to get across and scored VIP parking because some Houston friends happened to be manning the VIP parking lot. Thanks guys! We setup Billy's transition area and I helped out where I could with the other athletes getting ready. It is eye-opening to see how much more preparation is required for a challenged athlete. Billy required some of the least additional prepwork, but some came with two or three different wheel chairs, two different legs with their associated liners, shoes, etc. The "Tri 1" athletes are unable to walk and use a handcycle for the bike and a wheelchair for the run. The "Tri 6" athletes are blind and have a guide race with them through the entire race - they swim "tethered" to their guide, bike using a tandem bike, and run tethered. The Tri 2-5 athletes have various degrees of disabilities, as described here. Billy is in the Tri 3 group. Throughout the morning, Billy and I learned more and more about each other. I learned he is a commodities trader, trading steel, and that he is 30 years old. I finally mustered up the courage to ask how he ended up with the disability he had. I did not want to pry and wanted to make sure I asked in the most "appropriate" way possible. He was quick to share his story - he had brain surgery when he was 16 and then suffered a stroke when he was 17 as a result of complications from the surgery. The stroke left his left-side paralysis. Billy's left arm doesn't really do much. His left leg is injured as well, but he is able to run on it, albeit with difficulty. I only knew the story of one other athlete out there that day. He is from Austin and turns out to be one of the ones I'd seen at the gym recently, wanting to ask where he got his leg. Turns out he got his leg from someone other than my company, but I will forgive him for that. He is in his early 30s and had his lower leg amputated last year after it was injured in a car accident 15 years earlier. 15 years. 15 years of trying to salvage what he had and finally saying screw it and having it amputated. He tried his hand at triathlons before the amputation, but has had a much easier time racing post-amputation. Billy had a similar story in that he only became a triathlete a year or so ago, after years and years of rehab and struggling to learn his new "normal." Billy said triathlon has been wonderful for his condition; I chimed in that he must be a physical therapist's dream now!
The paratriathletes' wave was set to start right after the professionals started. The paratriathletes were staged in transition with the pros, and received star treatment, as they should have. I went down onto the dock with Billy and bid him well. I watched him jump in and only then realized as he was warming up that he was only swimming with one arm. Wow. I watched as other athletes struggled to get into the water, or to get back onto the dock. Some struggled to get their wetsuits on...not once did I hear a complaint though. I watched Billy swim to the start line and was telling myself to remember that he was in a purple cap, one of the few, so I hoped I'd be able to spot him coming in fairly easily. We had a plan for getting his wetsuit off. I moved over to the swim exit and watched the pros come in from their 1500m swim - smooth and effortless are the best words I can use to describe their exit from the water and into the transition area. Not long after, the paratriathletes began coming in from their 750m swim. By now, I was on the exit ramp with my good friend Dionn who was volunteering at the swim exit. The first athlete came up and out...without a leg. A handler rushed in and helped her hop on one leg on her way. Soon, the Tri 1 athletes started coming in - these athletes required two people to physically lift them out of the water and run them to their chairs. Oh my gosh. Words cannot describe what unfolded over the next few minutes. Dionn and I wiped away the tears over and over, in sheer amazement of what we were watching. Determination like I have never seen before, but also a complete sense of normalcy...not an ounce of "feel sorry for me," but an abundance of courage. Some of the people came out of the water on one leg and were faster getting into transition than someone with two legs!
I spotted Billy coming in on the swim and started screaming my head off. I doubt he knew what he was getting with me as a handler. I got him up the ramp and we headed to the wetsuit strip area and three or four of us went to town getting his suit off. I grabbed his suit, cap, and goggles and ran along behind him to his bike. He was quick and methodical about getting ready to go - it is quite possible I slowed him down, but I sure tried not to :-) I had written "salt" and "honey stinger" on my hand as I was to remind him to do the former in T1 and the latter in T2...my only real job other than to carry his wetsuit up. I was afraid I'd mess up, but I remembered thanks to Mr. Sharpie. Speaking of sharpies, handlers had to be body-marked with their athlete's number. In the event that a handler breaks any rules or causes any problems, the athlete can receive a penalty. Uh, no pressure! Billy was off on his bike and I sat in transition and watched several more athletes come in and out of transition, never ceasing to be amazed. Each has a story. A story that I cannot comprehend. Stepped on an IED; injured in a car accident; woke up one morning having a stroke only to never be the same; diagnosed with MS; first American woman to lose a limb in combat; lost vision after an illness - the list goes on and on. My piddly "first-world" problems are laughable in comparison.
Billy was coming back from the bike before I knew it. Again I was screaming my head off and Billy may have been wishing for a different handler. He was heading out to run in no time. I went out to the run course to watch and the tears continued to sneak their way back onto my face. From where I was standing, I could see the athletes around mile 1 and then coming in at the finish line (the run was 3.1 miles). Some of the athletes were able to run far faster with one good leg and one prosthesis than I can run on two good legs (but that may not be saying much!). The run course was almost magical - there was such a sense of community among the athletes, their families, friends, and those there helping specifically with the race. I was honored to be a part of that community, even if just for a few short hours. I saw an amputee fly by with a Hanger jersey on and was excited to find out we had at least one more athlete out there. I saw my friend Nigel from Houston and his blind athlete, Brandon, run into second place in the Tri-6 division. Nigel and Brandon have raced together several times and they are crazy fast. I saw Billy heading down the home stretch (he was easy to spot in the bright yellow Achilles International jersey) and went crazy yet again. I met him on the other side of the finish line and got a big nasty sweaty hug. Several of the other athletes were hanging out in the finishers' area, rehashing their races - all looking exhausted yet elated. They just finished racing in the national championships. How often do people get to compete in a national championship in anything? Most of us never will.
I think this "race report" will be longer than the one I will presumably write soon for my race at Ironman Texas the previous weekend (and I apologize to anyone still reading at this point...brevity is not one of my strong points). I've done Ironman six times now - some parts of that do not change much from race to race. I've experienced what I got to experience Monday morning exactly once. I can only hope I get to do it many more times. Being a part of the paratriathlon only further reiterated my decision to take a break from Ironman and served as a great reminder to never take this stuff too seriously. It just seems down right stupid to be upset with a poor race result, bad workout, etc when I look at what I saw Monday. Each athlete out there is a true inspiration and serves to remind us true courage and heart are far more important than physical ability any day. They also serve to remind us that true courage and heart can make the unimaginable a reality.
To Billy - thank you for letting me be a part of your race. You and the other athletes who raced Monday were able to give me an experience I will never, ever forget.
Some awesome pictures are here.
Comments