It's now the closing week of January and Ironman still hasn't picked its list of special exempt Kona participants. I don't believe that there's any chance they won't pick me, but it sure will be nice once they officially do. I'm training, working to stay motivated, and working around the cold I picked up in Utah last week. But I don't think anything will light a fire in me more than getting the official word that I will be traveling to Kona. Knowing that I will have the opportunity to be the first heart transplant to ever cross that finish line will carry me further than anything else. Well, that, and the many people that I continue to meet at UCLA's heart transplant clinic.
This week I was there to give blood (for whatever reason my body is now metabolizing my rejection meds faster than before so my drug levels are being adjusted) and I met an older man who just had his transplant six weeks ago. In talking to him, and sharing with him my Ironman goal, I found out that he actually competed at Kona four times - winning his age group in 1994 at the age of 60. I can't imagine what it must have been like to go from being the world's most fit 60-year-old to being a man in need of a heart transplant to save his life.
But he persevered, stayed strong, and now he has his heart. He told me that his IM days are long gone, but he can't wait to get back on his bike. At 74!! I'm half that age.
Call it irony, good fortune, fate, or something else, it was a great lift to me to meet this man who knows what I've gone through as a heart transplant patient and knows what I'll be going through as an Ironman hopeful - albeit in a different order than I'm doing things.
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2 comments:
Hey Kyle, did you hook up with my buddy in Hawaii yet? I once read a quote from I think the oldest man to do the Iron Man at the time and they asked him how he did and he said, "Start slow and taper off", I'm trying to adopt that as my life motto now.
I'm not going to complain about my total knee replacement when I know you are trying to compete as the first heart transplant in the upcoming Ironman, Kyle! Your uncle and I are still pulling for your acceptance -- and confident they would be fools not to include you this year in Kona! Keep training...and keep smiling! Love you! Aunt Leo
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