I'm a Woman--and an Ironman!

One thousand bodies thrash through the water--kicking, propelling their arms, gasping for breath, dodging waves for 2.4 miles.  They stumble out of the water, eyes stinging, stomach sick from salt water, and head for their bikes.  They wind up and down roads through lava fields, humidity so high that they feel like they’re being slowly cooked alive.  The wind blasts towards them, pushing them toward cliffs for 112 miles.  When their legs are sufficiently jellied, they hop off their bikes and begin to run.  Their bodies jerk at the stark transition between the fluid cycle and the solid pavement pounding their feet.  If the biking felt like being slowly cooked alive, this feels like being thrown right on a hot skillet.  If they make it 26.2 miles, they earn the right to call themselves an Ironman and “brag for the rest of their lives.”

The reasons for competing in the Ironman vary from person to person.  Some people are addicted to competition, some people want to win, some people see it as the ultimate competition, or they just want to see if it can be done.  Trish Downing, a T-4 paraplegic, wanted to do it because no one else has.  In 2005, she was the first female paraplegic to complete an Ironman-length triathlon.  Since her triumphant completion in 2005, she has competed at Ironman Hawaii and Ironman Coeur d’Alene.  She completes the entire race using only her arms.  Trish was a competitive athlete prior to her accident, and she didn’t miss a step in getting back to competing. 

DB: Tell me about your accident and the events following it.

TD:  My accident happened in September of 2000 and at the time I was a competitive cyclist.  I was out on a training ride with a friend.  We had gone to Lookout Mountain in Golden, CO.  We were going home riding eastbound on a main thoroughfare.  As we were riding along, a car was coming westbound and had gotten into the turn lane and was trying to make a turn across a side street that we were crossing.  The car made a wide turn and came out and hit me nearly head on.  I was ejected from my bike and I kind of flipped in mid-air and landed on my back on the windshield and then I fell to the ground and broke my scapula and my ribs.  The impact of the car shattered my back and impacted my spinal cord.

"I think that activity keeps you healthy, keeps your mind engaged, keeps you interested in your life."

Following my accident, I was admitted to the hospital.  I spent three and a half weeks in the intensive care unit.  I had to have my back put back together.  I had metal rods inserted into my back.  I had to heal my scapula and my ribs.  During that time I had my gall bladder removed.  I also developed a skin sore from being in bed and on a back board.  I went to the Craig rehabilitation hospital in Englewood, CO.  While I was there, I had the skin sore repaired and got a skin flap.  I spent about three and a half months in rehabilitation at Craig.  Basically, I was just trying to learn how to relive life from awheelchair.

DB: Where was your family throughout your accident and healing?

TD:  My family was with me the whole time during my accident.  They were at the hospital almost every minute.  My family was very supportive, and I was very fortunate in that way.  But when I went home, I knew I wanted to live an independent life.  I wanted to go back to living alone, and my family respected that decision.  It was a big adjustment for me.  It was learning to do everything on my own, and learning to survive.  Sometimes when I didn’t know how to do something, that’s when you push yourself to figure it out because there’s nobody else around.  I did have a lot of support if I needed it, but I also knew that I wanted to be independent.

DB: Tell me about what you do for a living.

TD:  I’m a high school teacher.  I coordinate internships for students who are in their junior and senior year of school.  I help them get out into the community.  The first part of my job is calling and making contacts with different companies in the community and then once I get the students placed out, then I do a lot of traveling to each of the sites and make sure they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing.

DB: Do you think it’s important to stay active as a person with a disability?

TD: Yes, I’ve always been an active person.  I think that activity keeps you healthy, keeps your mind engaged, keeps you interested in your life. The fortunate thing for me, having suffered this injury, is that I was very involved in the disability community prior to my injury.  I participated as a tandem pilot on a bike with a visually impaired rider.  As part of that experience, I participated in the 1998 World Cycling Championships for the disabled. 

On that team, we had athletes who were in wheelchairs, athletes with cerebral palsy, athletes who are visually impaired.  So, I was really ahead of the curve when I had my accident because I had some of those people from that team calling me up in the hospital saying, “You need to get this kind of wheelchair, you need to get a hand-cycle, you need to get involved.”  So I had those resources and that’s where I was really fortunate because there were a lot of people in the rehab hospital with me who didn’t have that.  It got me rehabbed a lot faster because I knew I had resources, but 99% of the people who experience an injury like I do don’t have that kind of a resource.

DB: How was the transition to acceptance of your disability?  How long did it take? 

TD: I think the transition to accepting a disability, at least for me, was full of hills and valleys.  Some days everything was fine and I was like, “okay, I can deal with this,” and other days, it was very difficult.  It just depends what you’re up against.  If you have a certain goal and you can achieve that goal, then you’re like, ‘okay, I can hang onto this,’ but if you have a goal and see something as an obstacle to achieving that goal, then sometimes that’s where it gets frustrating because you can’t get where you’re trying to go.  I had a lot of help from my family and friends. 

Going through a disability requires a lot of self-reliance, but you do need to have the support and backing of other people.  It went up and down.  There were some days I really accepted it and some days that I didn’t.  Just the other day I was driving down the street thinking, “I can’t believe this is really my life.”  It’s kind of a day-to-day thing.  Some days you wished it didn’t happen and some days you find really great things that have come out of it. But I think it has changed my perspective on life.  I think I’m more determined and more motivated and I think I take advantage more of every day more than I used to.

DB: What gives you the greatest satisfaction in your life and what you do?

TD: Participating in sports.  It’s what I’ve always done and it’s probably what I’ll always do as long as I can.  It relaxes me, it motivates me, it keeps me in shape, it gives me something to look forward to.  It keeps me well-rounded.  It didn’t take me a long time to get back into sports after my accident, mostly because I had done so much work with athletes with disabilities before my accident.  So I pretty much knew what was available to me and what I wanted to try and what I wanted to get involved in.  I had a lot of people helping me, telling me what equipment to buy, what kind of events to go to.  I really didn’t skip much of a beat in getting back into sports.

DB: Do you think society has changed in their attitudes toward people with disabilities since you’ve had your accident?

TD: It’s only been about seven years since my disability.  No, I haven’t seen any dramatic changes.  I know I’ve seen changes in the people that have known me because at first they were like, “she’s never going back to work, she’s never going to be able to do anything, who’s going to support her?” And here I am flying all over the world doing competitions, and I’m back at work full time, and I’m about to get married.  I’m doing all of the things someone would have expected me to do if I hadn’t had my accident.  So I think I’ve definitely made an impact on people that I know.  But in terms of society as a whole, I think there’s still a lot of work to be done in terms of disabilities.

DB: How does it feel to be representative and pioneer for women’s paraplegic triathletes?  

TD:  I think it’s really cool.  Sometimes it gets lonely because I don’t have other people out there racing with me in triathlons, but at the same time I feel like I can make a statement and make a name for myself by being one of the first to really embrace the sport and take advantage of everything that it has to offer.

DB: In your blog, you talk about frustrations of the time limits.  Everyone is allowed 17 hours to complete the triathlon, and everyone has to be through the bike and the swim leg in 10.5 hours.  You mention a wish to lengthen the time limit for the triathlon.  Can you talk about that?  Some people with disabilities want to be treated like everyone else and be completely independent while others want extra help and allowances.  Where do you stand on that?

TD: That’s where it gets really difficult.  It’s such a gray area.  It makes it confusing for able-bodied people to understand disabled people.  There are a lot of disabled people who want the help and don’t mind it.  There are a lot of disabled people who don’t want any help at all and there are the people in the middle.  Every disability is as different as every person.  Often, people try and put disabled people in one category because they’re disabled, but there’s a whole gamut of people.

So with the Ironman thing, I’m split on it for a couple of reasons.  No, I don’t want concessions made for disabled athletes just because they’re disabled, but at the same time you have to understand what’s physiologically possible.  I’m a T4, so I’m paralyzed from the chest up.  I’m riding 112 miles with my biceps, triceps, and maybe the top of my chest, and that’s it.  And I’m expected to do a 2.4 mile swim and a 112 mile bike in the same amount of time as an able-bodied athlete. 

For a male in a wheelchair, it’s difficult, but the difference between a male in a wheelchair and a female in a wheelchair is huge.  Our upper bodies, as females, are so much smaller than men’s.  If you asked the male wheelchair racers, they’d probably say that the time cut is fine, but you look at the women and you wonder if it’s physiologically possible.  But the percentage that it’s physiologically possible for is like .000001%.  There could be a real ringer of a female who’s super strong, maybe she’s paralyzed at the waist, and she’s got some trunk and some ab muscles, and I say, more power to her, that’s awesome.

The Ironman has been accessible for anyone.  If you really wanted to take the time to train for it, more likely than not you could complete it as an everyday athlete.  But if you’re a female in a wheelchair, you have to be the very best.  You have to be an elite athlete.  But for me, I’m an everyday athlete who got injured, and now I’m an everyday disabled athlete.  So it’s open to the everyday able bodied athlete, but it’s only open to the very elite female wheelchair athlete.  So that’s where the difference is.  So, if you wanted to be on the same scale… it’s all relative.  The time clock is 17 hours, I can do an Ironman in 17 hours, the problem is, my bike is long and my run is short.  It’s hard to say, if they change the time test, people would be like, “well, she finished, but—” There’s not going to be very many female wheelchair racers out there.

Over the course of time, there will be one, two, three maybe, who stick it out long enough and go through not making the time cuts and trying it over and over again to get the finish time.  It’s a total catch 22, I don’t have an answer for it, I’m going to keep on trying, if I make it, great, if I don’t, well, I’m going to give up eventually, but I hope there are women out there who can do, but I feel for the women that want to do it, but don’t get the opportunity.

DB: Do you have any advice for those who have recently gone through a disabling accident?

TD: My advice is: number one--be patient, number two--not to give up, number three--really do your research, and number four--keep the hope.  I think once you lose all hope in what you can do, that’s where you start going down the wrong path.  If you don’t feel like there’s ever anything that’s going to be worthwhile, then you probably won’t find anything worthwhile, but as long as you keep that positive attitude that there’s something out there for you, then I think it will work out.