http://www.cdapress.com/articles/2007/10/16/news/news03.txt

Double-amputee Scott Rigsby completes 140.6-mile race in Kona
As Scott Rigsby crossed the finish line of the Ironman Triathlon World Championship, he smiled, raised his arms in triumph and flexed his muscles.

Then, he asked one question.

"Where is the stretcher?"

*

He was kidding, kind of.

The 39-year-old became the first double amputee to finish an Ironman in Kona, Hawaii, on Sunday.

In hot, humid and windy conditions, he covered the course in 16 hours, 42 minutes and 46 seconds. He finished the 1.2-mile swim in 1 hour, 28 minutes, 48 seconds, the 112-mile bike ride in 8:19:30 and the 26.2-mile run in 6:23:33.

"I was able to do something nobody had ever done, and it felt wonderful," he said.

The Atlanta, Ga., man tried Ironman Coeur d'Alene in June, but a crash on the bike course hobbled his efforts and forced him to abandon the run.

This time, he came even more determined to make it.

"I'm glad to get that monkey off my back," Rigsby said. "There was that big 800-pound gorilla back there and it's gone now.

North Idaho finishers also included Nicolle Clutter, 24, Coeur d'Alene, who finished in 11:29:28, and Chrystie Hjeltness, 41, Post Falls, who reached the finish line in 12:21:52.

This year, 1,787 triathletes began the race and 1,685 finished before the 17-hour cutoff.

Chris McCormack of Australia won the men's title in 8:15:34 seconds. Chrissie Wellington, 30, of Great Britain won the women's title in 9:08:45.

Rigsby said the swim was a little rough, but it went well and he headed to the bike ride with confidence.

"On the bike you pretty much never know what you're going to get," he said. "That's what makes it so difficult."

Boy, was it difficult.

Rigsby estimates he was riding into headwinds for about 40 miles.

"I was literally going 7 to 8 miles an hour," he laughed during a phone interview on Monday as he packed his bags to catch a plane home. "It was just very tough."

He recalled at one point thinking the headwind wouldn't be there, or even might be at his back, on the return.

Wrong.

"It was just God awful," he said. "I thought that Coeur d'Alene was tough, but this was a brutal course."

He came in from the bike about 5 p.m. and set out about 5:20, giving the stocky Rigsby less than 7 hours to beat the midnight cutoff and be an official Ironman.

"I was really concerned when I actually put my legs on how far I could run," he said. "My legs were so tired and worn out from just pedal, pedal, pedal."

But he found the strength.

"Obviously, it must have been everybody's prayers because they were answered," he said. "When I pulled away and began running I felt fine."

He took it easy the first miles and stopped at each aid station for defizzed Coke, Gatorade Endurance formula and lots of ice.

"For the most part, the marathon wasn't bad at all," he said. "It was just so hot and so humid."

Which created one more problem: He couldn't stop sweating.

So every four miles or so, he had to stop, take off his prosthetic legs, and dump out sweat. He estimated he lost about 50 minutes with the continued stops to adjust his legs.

Still, he pushed on.

As the clock ticked toward midnight, and as he closed in on the finish line of the Super Bowl of triathlons, it was, he said, crazy.

As he neared the end, the crowd roared.

"It was an unbelievable feeling. It felt like it was exactly what God made me to do," he said. "I was made for this race."

Rigsby, who lost his legs as a result of a vehicle accident when he was a young man, said his support crew included several from Coeur d'Alene.

"It was just great. I wanted to savor the moment and thank all the people who got me there," he said. "It was great to see all their hard work and support pay off."

Rigsby, who is not registered for Ironman Coeur d'Alene 2008, hopes to return to Coeur d'Alene for some training, spend time with friends and would like to visit schools and give motivational talks to students.

He said that because he is a double-amputee, he hopes finishing Ironman will open the door for others who may have doubts about their abilities. He is not, he said, an athlete with disabilities.

"I look at myself as an athlete with physical challenges," he said.

There are others who don't believe doing something like an Ironman is possible.

"They think they've got so many physical challenges to overcome they can't get there," he said. "I'm living proof they can."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqg-2bHjjN4

http://www.delta-sky.com/2007_10/training/

Training Day

Trailblazer

Through his remarkable achievements as a triathlete, Scott Rigsby serves as an inspiration to other amputees . . . and to able-bodied athletes, as well. by Brian Cook
Trailblazer


CONSIDER THE STAGES of the humility-inducing event known as an Ironman triathlon: a 2.4-mile swim, followed by 112 miles on a bike, then, just to see what you're really made of, a marathon run—literally—of 26.2 miles.

Now, consider Scott Rigsby. The 39-year-old Atlanta resident has the powerful build of a football player (he was one, back in high school), not the more sinewy physique that you might expect of a triathlete. Only a year and half ago, he raced in his first triathlon of any distance, having had limited running experience and never having cycled or swum competitively.

This month in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, Rigsby will be in the starting field at the Ford Ironman Triathlon World Championship. It's an improbable achievement, especially for someone whose life was changed so dramatically in a horrifying few seconds one July afternoon in 1986.

Just 18, Rigsby was working a summer landscaping job near the farm where he grew up with six siblings in tiny Camilla, Georgia. He was riding in the bed of a pickup truck pulling a trailer of lawn mowers when it was clipped by a semi that tried to pass on a narrow two-lane road, knocking him out of the vehicle. Rigsby was dragged along the asphalt for more than 300 feet, then pinned beneath the 3-ton trailer. Among his most serious injuries: third-degree friction burns on his back and two mangled legs. Once at the hospital, his right leg was amputated below the knee, and he'd soon undergo the first of 25 surgical procedures to reconstruct his "good" left leg.

Rigsby went on to graduate from the University of Georgia in Athens, but his life revolved around hospitalization, rehabilitation and various jobs he took just to make ends meet. So in June 1998, still struggling to walk and perform some of the most basic tasks of daily living, after 12 years of physical and emotional anguish and some serious introspection, Rigsby ordered his 26th surgery and became a double amputee.
"Scott is very driven," says Tony Myers, Rigsby's coach. "You can't go through what he has since his accident and not end up a very resolved individual."

"I was ready to retire from being a professional patient," he says of his decision to have his lower left leg removed. "I just needed to put a very painful past behind me and start living again."

Just six weeks after the second amputation, Rigsby was not only walking but jogging on a set of high-tech prosthetic limbs. While things were looking up, he desired something more—physically and professionally—out of his new life. He even tried to break into the prosthetics industry as a salesman. "I was told the company wanted to get able-bodied people to sell their products," he recalls with amusement, "and I'm like, 'OK, that makes a lot of sense."

Drawing on his athletic background, he decided to become a "trailblazer" and an inspiration for other amputees, just as he'd been inspired by Sarah Reinertsen, who in 2005 became the first female above-the-knee amputee ever to finish an Ironman competition—and the most difficult one at that, the Ford Ironman World Championship in Hawaii. With the support of corporate sponsors (including Delta Air Lines), Rigsby now trains and competes full time. In 2006 he completed 13 triathlons, five road races and one duathlon, a run/bike/run event, setting assorted world records along the way. That summer he became the first double amputee on prosthetics to complete the Olympic-distance New York City Triathlon (1,500-meter swim, 25-mile bike ride, 6.2-mile run).

Last June, he finally tackled an Ironman, in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, where the sponsor, Ford, honored him with its Everyday Hero award. Rigsby had hoped to become the first double amputee to finish an Ironman, but the intense pain of a back injury caused by an over-the-handlebars spill during the bike portion forced him to drop out at mile 11 of the marathon. "It was one of the hardest decisions I ever made, " he says. Still, "It was an amazing experience; I did the best I could and went as far as I could."

Less than two weeks later, he was racing again, and this month (October 13) he'll be in Hawaii, one of only five disabled athletes chosen to participate in the world's best-known Ironman competition.

Rigsby's "journey," as he calls it, has been fueled by fierce determination, his Christian faith, a ready sense of humor and a "big piece of granite" in place of the proverbial chip on his broad shoulders. "I work best when somebody says I can't do it or when they doubt me," he says. "I just get out there and figure out a way to do it."

"There's really no excuse for anyone not to be active,"says Rigsby."You're not going to get any sympathy from me. It's a privilege to be able to run, swim and bike."

But attempting an Ironman indicates just how far Rigsby has come in the two years since he was referred to the man who would become his coach. "So Scott calls me up, and in all honesty, the biggest issue was not that he was a double amputee, but that he was a double amputee wanting to do an Ironman—and he didn't bike and didn't swim competitively," says Tom Myers, owner of Athletic Training Services of Atlanta, another of Rigsby's sponsors.

"And I'd never run a road race either," Rigsby adds. "I told Tony what I was going to do, and he didn't hang up on me, so I figured I'd work with him."

"The next day," continues Myers, "Scott came over, and I could tell by talking with him that his motivation and sense of direction were so strong. I thought, well, it's possible he could do this, but the odds were stacked against him." After Rigsby jogged a few laps around the parking lot wearing his curved, cleated carbon-fiber running blades-which resemble upside-down question marks-he had himself a coach.

"Scott is very driven," says Myers. "I think it's just part of his personality in general, but also, you can't go through what he has since his accident and not end up a very resolved individual."

"When I walked in [to see Myers] back in 2005, I just prayed a simple prayer," Rigsby says. "I said, 'God, if you open some doors for me to run through, then I'll run through them.' And that's basically what happened. So be careful what you pray for," he adds, grinning sheepishly, "because I've done a lot of running, more than I probably would've liked to."

In Myers' estimation, Rigsby's main obstacle to becoming a competent triathlete was the bike riding: "Cycling is very much a mechanical endeavor. That's what worried me about Scott. I knew he could swim, I knew he could run, but on the bike there were some issues, because he's not connected to the pedals directly, and he lacks the feet that are necessary to transfer the power." The prosthetic limbs Rigsby dons for riding slide into cycling shoes, which are then attached to toe clips on each pedal. Since Rigsby can't actually sense when he's securely attached to the pedals, Myers drew white lines on the toes of his cycling shoes as a visual guide.

Fortunately for the sturdy, 6-foot Rigsby, he has well-developed quadriceps—the large muscles at the front of the thighs—which partly compensate for what he's missing. "Scott has to be a 'masher' on the bike and maximize his quad usage," Myers explains, "because that's where all his power comes from. He has a bigger task of stabilizing his body, because he's really on stilts."

One might assume that Rigsby hits the weight room pretty hard. "Actually, I don't," he admits. He says he lifts occasionally with a friend who's a personal trainer, primarily to keep his joints flexible and strengthen his shoulders for swimming, "but we don't do anything heavy, and we don't do anything very long."

His coach points out that Rigsby's approach is hardly unusual. "The main reason triathletes do weight training at all—and some don't do any—is to keep their strength balanced around the joints," says Myers. "It actually doesn't help performance. Resistance training builds fast-twitch muscle fiber, and even shorter triathlons are slow-twitch muscle fiber events."

For swimming, Rigsby's gear for some time was decidedly low-tech: a short neoprene sleeve for each leg. Now he uses a pair of carbon fiber prosthetic sockets with waterproof sleeves; they don't lengthen his legs but help him walk in the transition from swimming to biking. In the water, he's not at nearly as much of a disadvantage, since triathletes train to swim with minimal kicking, saving their legs for the latter stages. But running poses a new set of challenges. Not only is Rigsby missing the complex foot and ankle structures that distribute the weight and help absorb the impact, notes Myers, but the lower portions of his legs can't be cooled by the normal method of sweat evaporation, and they can take a pounding from all the motion. Thus, Rigsby often has to stop and empty the perspiration—and sometimes blood—that pools in the cups his legs sit in, making him prone to bacterial infections.

Rigsby says race organizers don't cut him any slack for the time it takes to change or maintain his prosthetics during or between stages—the clock keeps ticking. But almost always, as during last year's South Carolina Half Ironman, he is given extra space to accommodate his array of special gear. Good thing, he says, "because it looked like a mannequin store had blown up in my transition area."
"I was ready to retire from being a professional patient," Rigsby says of his decision to have his lower left leg removed.

As for his regular training regimen, Rigsby rides just about every day, mixing in hourlong Spinning sessions (high-intensity stationary-bike workouts), 30-minute jogs, three-hour run/walk sessions and one-hour swims a couple of nights a week. But it's during the weekly seven-hour, 100-mile rides away from the city that he builds his endurance and stamina and fine-tunes his riding technique.

Oftentimes he trains with friend and fellow triathlete Mike Lenhart, founder and president of the Getting2Tri Foundation, which uses triathlons to bring together the physically challenged (including war-wounded military veterans) and able-bodied athletes. "I get a lot of personal inspiration working with a guy like Scott," says Lenhart, a West Point graduate and former Army officer. "He's opened doors for other challenged athletes, because they see what he's doing."

Of course, triathlon training isn't for most people, challenged or otherwise, so Rigsby's recommendations are more modest. "Find an exercise you enjoy doing," he says. "Spend time with it, get really good at it and then be proud of what you've done. There's really no excuse for anyone not to be active. . . . You're not going to get any sympathy from me. It's a privilege to be able to run, swim and bike, it really is.

"I'd encourage people to try to set realistic [fitness] goals, so you can measure progress with small steps. If you aim at nothing, you're going to hit it every time. Find something you love, aim at it and achieve it. You'll feel great about yourself, and you'll impact all those around you."

In Atlanta, Rigsby's impact is felt even at Georgia Tech, where he often volunteers as a study subject in one of the nation's top prosthetics research and development programs. "I'm a Georgia graduate configured by Georgia Tech," he says. Unable to hide his true (school) colors, he adds, jokingly, "I always put on as much red and black as I can before I go over there." The way Rigsby figures it, "they get a two-for-one special with me."

SCOTT RIGSBY FOUNDATION SCOTT RIGSBY FOUNDATION

"The opportunity is there
for me to lead an
extraordinary life… I can
reach so many people,
and hopefully, I can be a
source of inspiration…


…maybe they can look
at me and say, you
know what? Life is
tough, but if this guy
can make it, then I can
make it."

DEAR FRIEND,

Thinking the unthinkable is not easy. It requires drive and
commitment. It requires an unshakeable determination to
overcome any obstacle. My name is Scott Rigsby and I think
I have a purpose to make a difference in everyone's life.

On October 13, 2007, in Kona, Hawaii, I will attempt to
become the first below-the-knee, double amputee to
complete a Full Ironman on prosthesis. The Kona Ironman,
a grueling 2.4 mile ocean swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile
run, is considered by many world-class athletes to be the
ultimate achievement of a lifetime.

Triathlon may appear on the surface to be an individual
sport, but it is a team effort based on sacrifice and support -
spiritual, emotional, physical and financial. I will need your
support as my personal and professional expenses have
increased in pursuit of touching the world.

Although I am out to set records, real success for me is
helping others to break my records. I am doing this through
the newly formed Scott Rigsby Foundation. The Scott Rigsby
Foundation has filed for 501(c)(3) status and is fully dedicated
to the support of physically challenged athletes and
their athletic pursuits using prosthetics. My Foundation
needs your assistance in order to make their voices heard,
their challenges met, and their fears overcome.

I invite you to become part of Team Rigsby today by kindly
donating at :


https://www.active.com/donate/scottrigsby


Thank you so much and God Bless,

Scott Rigsby

IRON SHARPENS IRON



"What can you do with a man
who has an invincible purpose
in him: who never
knows when he is beaten; a
man who when his legs are
shot off, will fight on the
stumps. Difficulties and
opposition do not daunt him.
He thrives upon persecution;
it only stimulates him to
more determined endeavor.
The world always listens to a
man with a will in him."

-Orison Swett Marden

Scott Rigsby is trying to become the first double below knee amputee to complete the Ironman World Championship this fall. As he prepares for his October 13th challenge on the Kona Coast, Scott took some time to go through his amazing comeback with Bob and Paul.

http://www.competitorradio.com/details.php?show=161

http://www.competitorradio.com/shows/149Competitors-ScottRigsby.mp3

Peachtree City Running Club will present Scott Rigsby, a double amputee that has run many marathons as well as ironman, on August 6th, 2007. The meeting will be held at the Wyndam Peachtree Conference Center at 7:30. The public is invited. More about Scott Rigsby on his web site at www.scottrigsby.com.

PART 1

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=979889&fr=

PART 2

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=993212&fr=

PART 3

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=993445&fr=

By Bryan Fazio


— After 11 miles, the searing pain becomes too much.
Shards of vertebrae floating around Scott Rigsby's back ends a leg of a journey. His coach looks on, and the pain is too much for her.
For the former Valdosta State student, it's the equivalent of a sore throat, causing him to slow down and briefly stop talking to the world, but he will come back with a louder yell.
The injury ended the Atlanta resident's bid at a historic Ironman. But the reason the Ironman is a historic one for Rigsby is also the reason most pain has little to no effect on the 39-year-old.
On June 24, in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, Rigsby became the first below-the-knee double amputee to compete in the grueling triathlon event. The Ironman race was one of several stops on the way to his ultimate goal of the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii this October.
Training to run, both physically and emotionally, through grueling challenges without either leg gives Rigsby the will and fortitude to push through any obstacle.
When his first leg was amputated in 1986, the doctor put up a verbal wall that Rigsby would slice through like he does the water on swims of up to three miles.
"When I first got into the hospital, he told me I wouldn't be able to run again," Rigsby said.
For a former football player and an all-around athlete, it was more of a challenge than a crushing blow.
In 1986, Rigsby was in a car accident when a tractor trailer hit the truck he was riding in, forcing his right leg to be removed and badly damaging the left. After 12 years and 17 surgeries, he opted for the ultimate pain, rather than dealing with the complications, and had his left leg removed in 1998.
The second amputation allowed Rigsby to move more freely on two prosthetics, but still left him reeling about his purpose.
In December 2005, 19 years after the horrible accident, his purpose in life was realized.
Sitting on his mother's floor near Camilla, tears running down his face from life's frustration, Rigsby prayed with his mother for guidance on what to do with his prosthetics-assisted life.
He remembered reading about a girl who completed the Ironman in Hawaii as the first above-the-knee single amputee, and the impact it caused. He also felt the agony he saw in the faces of soldiers coming back from Iraq with missing arms and legs, and felt he could use his tragedy as a symbol for many.
"I just remember praying with my mother and asking God, 'If You open doors, I will run through them,'" Rigsby said. "Just be careful what you pray for, because I've been doing a lot of running."
Rigsby's will, along with his tremendous balance, refined while playing football as a nose guard going up against guys that were up to 100 pounds heavier, made him the perfect candidate for being the motivational leader he is.
"Obviously, everyone wants to feel like they're fulfilling a purpose in life," Rigsby said. "I truly do feel God put me on this earth for such a time as this."
Rigsby lives the biblical phrase "such a time as this," in which a woman saved her country from destruction in Esther 4:14.
With amputated soldiers needing guidance, Rigsby saw a need to start training in 2005. He has since become the first double amputee to compete in an Olympic-distance triathlon, half marathon and full marathon.
Rigsby continues to press on, trying to help others through his actions, thanks to the pain of his past. When the training becomes too much, he just thinks about his older brother.
While Rigsby can no longer use his legs, his older brother, Tim, has suffered with mental retardation since birth. That thought serves as motivation, and Tim is why Scott continues to do what he does.
"I know, in reality, the real Ironman in our family is Tim," Scott said. "He wasn't supposed to live past a couple of years old, and now he's in his 40s."
No matter what your beliefs may be, Scott's relations, his past experience and his disability seem to be made for his purpose of being someone for amputees and other disabled people to look up to.
This was evident before his first attempt at an Ironman during his June race in Idaho.
Two days before the race, there was a pasta dinner, in which Scott Rigsby received the Ford Everyday Hero Award, and a video was played during the ceremony. About 50,000 people came out to support him.
"Instantly, I connected with not only the participants, but also family members," Rigsby said.
That Sunday, Rigsby raced a double amputee's first Ironman in front of a home crowd.
He started with one of his best swims ever, finishing in an hour and 35 minutes. After a rough transition to the bike, he rode 60 miles, before the event that would cut his race short.
On mile 60, as he rode down a hill at about 25-miles per hour, his chain came off and he flipped over the handle bars, landing on his back and shoulders. He then gathered himself and rode the final 62 miles of the bike portion, before continuing on to the run, where he would eventually stop.
"There were only two ways I would be leaving that course," Scott said. "By not making it to one of the time cutoffs, or they were going to take me off the course in an ambulance."
While he did leave in an ambulance, he left just that race, not his journey.
Rigsby continues to train and seek sponsors for the Ironman in Hawaii, where he will be able to reach people on the biggest stage. The Ironman World Championships are broadcast worldwide on NBC, giving him his furthest reach to help others.
"I feel grateful to God for giving me the ability to be able to run, but run like nobody ever has on a set of prosthetic legs," Rigsby said. "It's a way for me to serve my country and give back to the men and women of the armed services, who give themselves for our freedom.
"Our military men and women, when they went into service, they were athletes, and just because they loose a limb, doesn't mean that they are no longer athletes. They see me, and say, 'Gosh, if that guy can do it with no legs, I can do it."
Scott Rigsby is a native of Camilla who has two sisters living in Valdosta.
Copyright © 1999-2006 cnhi, inc.
Photos

Scott Rigsby, who lost sections of both of his legs after an accident in 1986, was the first below-the-knee double-amputee to compete in an Ironman triathlon. He poses with his bike before the event in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho on June 24. The Valdosta Daily Times

Double-amputee Scott Rigsby runs during an Ironman triathlon in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho on June 24. The Valdosta Daily Times

Physically challenged triathletes have something to prove to others … and themselves


Scott Rigsby trains in the Coeur d'Alene on Thursday. Advances in prosthetics have helped more athletes with disabilities compete.


Hope Brumbach i Correspondent
June 23, 2007

A doctor told Scott Rigsby he likely would never run again. When he was 18, the Georgia native's right leg was amputated five inches below the knee after an 18-wheeler smashed into the truck he was riding in. In the following year, he had 17 surgeries to reconstruct his left leg.

That was nearly 21 years ago.

Since then, Rigsby chose to have his troubled left leg removed below the knee. He learned to run on high-tech prosthetics. A year and a half ago, after reading the story of Sarah Reinersten, a physically challenged triathlete, Rigsby entered the world of triathlons – a way, he says, to find purpose, make a difference and inspire others.

He became the first double-amputee to complete an Olympic distance triathlon and a half Ironman race on prosthetics. This spring, he was the first below-the-knee double-amputee to complete a full marathon on prosthetics.

And this Sunday at the Ford Ironman Coeur d'Alene competition, Rigsby hopes to become the first athlete with double amputations to complete an Ironman, a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run.

"Once I latch onto something, I'm unrelenting, I won't let go," said Rigsby, 39, of Atlanta. "What I feel like I'm doing is challenging people who have drug addictions, or maybe their marriage is on the rocks, or they've lost faith in themselves or they've lost passion for life – they will just keep going."

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Rigsby's is one of many stories of hope and perseverance in the face of adversity – including illness or physical impediments – found in the Ironman competition, an event that will draw 2,200 athletes this weekend to the shores of Lake Coeur d'Alene.

The Ironman race "is a significant achievement. It's the ultimate test of endurance," said Helen Manning, communications director for North America Sports Inc., host of the Coeur d'Alene event.

Manning said that over the years she's noticed an increase in the number of physically challenged athletes entering the Ironman. She attributes it to the advancement of prosthetics and the high-profile examples of athletes overcoming hurdles, such as American cyclist Lance Armstrong, a cancer survivor who won seven Tour de France races.

"They don't want to be about their injury or illness. They want to be about what they can achieve as a person," Manning said. "It's the athlete and the person first, and the hurdles or circumstances they face are not what define them."

Jon Hammermeister, professor of sports and exercise psychology at Eastern Washington University, said athletes who overcome obstacles are motivated to achieve for a variety of reasons: to prove themselves, socialize or just to have fun. Some are motivated because of their condition or injury; others are motivated despite it.

"The one thing they have in common," Hammermeister said, "is the role that goals play in this kind of thing."

Tricia Downing fits that description. The 37-year-old is determined this weekend to become the first female paraplegic to complete an Ironman. In fall 2000, the elite road and track cyclist was hit by a car while training in Golden, Colo. She suffered a spinal injury, but from her hospital bed the Denver resident penned her first grant request for a hand cycle that would get her back into competition.

Last year, the Challenged Athletes Foundation named Downing its most inspirational athlete.

"I'm pushing myself to see how well I can do," Downing said.

Chris Copstead, a former Coeur d'Alene city councilman, helped usher in the first contract with North America Sports to bring Ironman to Coeur d'Alene. He decided then that he would someday compete.

But after beginning training this year, Copstead was diagnosed with leukemia, a disease that can result in fatigue and muscle aches. At the start of his training, he worked out 15 to 20 hours a week, shedding 25 pounds, Copstead said.

He's exhausted by the end of the day – but he probably would be anyway due to his training regimen, Copstead said.

"The word 'leukemia' is affecting other people more than me," said Copstead, 58, an account executive for Comcast Spotlight. "It never affected my desire to do Ironman. … I've always liked to set goals."

Two years ago, Andy Holder, a lifelong athlete, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. The Collegeville, Pa., man struggled with anger, fear and depression – until he recognized the disease as a challenge and decided to become "Iron Andy," Holder said.

He didn't own a bike, and he didn't really know how to swim, said Holder, 39.

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"Why Ironman? The beauty is in the simplicity of it: because it was so damn hard. … If it was easy, no one would care and no one would be inspired," said Holder, a former investment advisor. "I have two sons. … I refused to have them grow up seeing me as diseased."

He's now completed six half-marathons, three marathons and his first Ironman competition at Lake Placid, N.Y. During the races, he wears an insulin pump and tests his blood sugar level to keep it in check.

Although he's not competing in Ironman Coeur d'Alene, he's in town this weekend speaking to children and their families about diabetes and stumping as the official spokesman for the "Managing Diabetes: Living Without Limits" campaign sponsored by Diabetes Shoppe.

And he's already signed up for next year's Ironman Coeur d'Alene, he said.

"As long as I'm healthy," Holder said, "I want to keep it up."