4 Screws lighter and Miracle Kids recap
July 19th, 2008Yesterday I went into the Health Partners Specialty Clinic right near my home for a quick surgery in the afternoon. I started the day with a 4 k swim early in the morning and focussed on some 100 repeats. I shaved up the night before (for the first time since my accident) and wore a speed suit rather than my regular drag suit. Needless to say it was fun to go fast. After that I went for an easy 1 hour spin. I was not allowed to eat before the surgery and was super hungry. The surgery was totally slick. They did knock me completely out, pulled two screws on the top of my leg and two more on the bottom. I woke up, ate some food that we (Jennie and I) brought with and they quickly kicked me out so the staff could all attend Friday happy hour (at least that’s what I highly suggested and it seemed to go over well). My foot felt fantastic and has nearly complete range of motion! Jennie and I went immediately to Grand Performance to pick up some socks and a bottle for my new buddy Shane that I got to race with today at Miracle Kids (which I will write about momentarily). We then had dinner at Whole Foods and went home. I was feeling great still and watched a bit of t.v going to bed at 10p.m.
I woke up before my alarm today very excited about Miracle Kids. Tony Schiller had asked me last week (before my surgery was scheduled) to assist a 7 year old super cool kid named Shane (who has Spina Bifida) during his race. This event is awesome by the way and you must check it out or better yet volunteer. I arrived at 10:30 and immediately found Shane and his family. We discussed how we would go about the race and set up in a vip transition area. Shane was the only kid with a disability in the race (that I saw). There were several cancer survivor kids participating too. Shane and I got to lead the procession down to the beach after the opening ceremony in which Mitch’s dad talked about his now deceased son and how his son really originated Miracle Kids.
The basic story is that little Mitch was terminal with cancer and at the U hospital in 2002. He overheard another kid asking if they would have Christmas and his parents had to explain that they had no money. In fact, the parents of the child were sleeping in the back of a truck during the winter in the parking lot of the hospital. Mitch asked his dad how much money he had so that he could help them out. He also told his dad to help such families after he died. Thus Miracle Kids was born to help raise money to help families in need. Each kid races with a name of a kid with cancer who can’t race and raise money along the way.
I pushed Shane in his wheelchair down as far as the carpet went. From there I picked him up and carried him to the water edge. We got to enter first and they didn’t start anyone else until we got around the first corner, about 30 yards or so. Then the older kids (15-17) began followed by the younger kids. Shane and I accidentally did the long swim course but it only added 50 yards. We took it easy and just had a ton of fun. I picked him up again and brought him out of the water to his wheelchair. I pushed him into transition stopping a lot to receive high 5’s from all the excited spectators. It was awesome to say the least. From there it was a race for me against Shane in transition. His mom helped him into his hand pedal bike while I removed my wetsuit, garbage bag and saran wrap that I affixed around my stitched leg (don’t tell my doc - it didn’t get wet at all by the way). I put on my shoes and was finishing tying up my second shoe when I saw Shane booking it out of transition on his bike. Should’ve had speed laces! Luckily Jennie ran after him and I had to hobble quickly with a bit of aid from a hiking stick to catch up. This catching up routine was repeated anytime there was a downhill. My dad caught up with my nephew Adam as well early on the bike course which would be a 3 mile loop around Nakomis. Shane pushed through the entire thing like a true champion. We were last to T2 but surely had the most fun. The run leg was only .5 miles and Shane changed to his super cool race wheelchair complete with tubular race wheels. I had to grab my mountain bike in order to keep up and a bunch of the Cargil volunteers (Cargil is a major sponsor and brought nearly 50 employees to help) came with too only to find themselves having to run the entire time. When we came into the finishing stretch I’m pretty sure every participant and their families were screaming their heads off. I ditched my bike before entering the narrow path but luckily Shane slowed down to high 5 everyone. It was a true honor to race with Shane today - a 7 year old who taught everyone present about life.
Shane, myself and our families hung out enjoying some snacks and conversation. We left the race about an hour after finishing. It was so amazing to be a part of this fantastic kid’s day and to witness the Miracle Kids Tri. Once I got home I did notice that my leg was bleeding a bit. I unwrapped the bandages and found that a few stitches had come loose. It was an easy fix though and I think my doc will be impressed with my home stitching job. It really hurt but I had the luxury of thinking about Shane which made it quite tolerable to stitch myself up. I guess I’ll have to take it easy tomorrow.
So all in all it was a fantastic day. The weather held (it’s storming now), the race went amazing, I got to hang with one of the coolest kids I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, I learned about Miracle Kids Triathlon, I chatted with stud tri guy Brian Bich (his kids were racing today and Brian will be smoking everyone at HOLT tomorrow), I saw a ton of friends (Yndestads, Christine Heilman, many more), and had the opportunity to get inspired to my very core. I just hope anyone reading had half as good a day as mine…
Oh, check out the 3 pics of Shane and I in the ‘pictures’ section!
Jeremy