Lucky Guy
Last Sunday I traveled to San Diego, as I’ve done every October since 1996, for the San Diego Triathlon Challenge. This event was founded 15 years ago to raise money for an amputee Ironman triathlete who was rendered quadriplegic when a van cut the course and threw him from his bike into a telephone pole. Two consecutive and successful years of the SDTC gave birth to the Challenged Athletes Foundation. CAF has raised better than 10 million dollars to date and has benefited thousands of physically challenged athletes from dozens of countries.
Hollywood folks have responded kindly to our cause by sending the likes of Robin Williams, Jim Carey, Will Farrell, David James Elliot and a few Baywatch babes. The event is indeed more of an event than a race and most athletes - movie stars, disabled or professional - compete on relay teams. I’m no exception and this year I was scheduled to run for team #1 consisting of double amputee double Paralympic gold medal winning swimmer Rudy Garcia-Tolson and none other than Matthew Broderick on the bike.
I’d learned of my teammates just a couple days before and was soon telling friends, and lots of people I didn’t know, that Ferris Bueller was my cyclist. And wouldn’t you know it, Ferris Bueller took the day off! The story was his Delta flight spent four hours on the tarmac in NY and had to bail.
Such a loss is truly nothing whatsoever when compared with the stories the 104 disabled athletes brought to LaJolla cove.
Each year I meet new athletes of all abilities with all these stories and this year was no different. Except for the fact this time around I was reminded of how lucky I am by a conversation with a woman named Terry. She lost her leg above the knee about a year ago and had a number of skin grafts all over her body.
“How’d you lose your leg?” I asked after a spell of chit chat.
“To a staph infection called ‘mersa.’”
That statement stunned me. I’ve been battling the same condition myself for two plus years. In my case it’s manifested itself as boils on my lower body, more often than not on Stumpy. A good half dozen have found a home there and the ensuing discomfort caused by having to bear full body weight when walking has resulted in extreme grumpiness, to put it mildly. I’ve gotten the point of near joy when I discover one on some other part of my body, knowing it’ll only hurt when I touch it…
Maybe just talking about this thing brings it out of remission - the entirety of yesterday was spent on crutches nursing Stumpy. His two infected areas outnumbered the happiness conjured up by the on one my right hip.
Today, Monday Nov 3, I was up at 5:30 and loaded the van with the boys’ stuff in preparation for a day at the nanny’s. Got them up and scooted down the stairs on my butt with the little one in my arms, one tread at a time. I hopped with Luke to the van with Jack sleepily following. Then I headed to Waterbury, CT present to the Connecticut Society of Association Executives’ Annual Meeting. In the parking lot of the conference center I donned the leg and did my thing. (The latest trial was good fodder for the “overcoming adversity” keynote!) The pain didn’t set in for a couple more hours, just in time for me to doff in on the ride home.
Nothing to complain about, really. Thanks to Terry.
And about my run that day in San Diego: 1:55 half marathon. Nothing to brag about.
