A story from Ironman Canada. On Aug 26 triathletes from all over the world competed at this Ironman in Whistler, BC. Most would be peaking for this event, being in the best shape of their lives. But one, ROC triathlete David Wyman, broke his shoulder badly, (required surgery, plates and screws) just 6 weeks prior to the event in a bad bike crash. But David still wanted to try the event with just one good arm, he had something to prove to himself. He knew he could 1-arm the bike and run, but the swimming… well that was something different. Could he make the cut-off for the swim to be allowed to continue the race? That remained the question right until he came out of the water. In order to spread out the work-load on the one good shoulder he ended using different 1-arm strokes. In his own words:
“I ended up doing a whole range of single arm strokes. I pre-set & counted my stokes in each style and it allowed me to keep really focussed, each stroke set would bring me 200 meters, so I knew that 10 strokes sets would give me each lap of the 2 lap course. This focus also helped me to tame my anxiety / nerves of being swam through with the swarm of participants, just kept focussed and counting – had the least anxiety yet”.
Well, Dave made the cut-off time for the swim and was able to complete the ironman. Not his best time, but just maybe his best race.
And by the way this is what it is all about. Thanks Dave for sharing your story.