One word, Ironman

[Trek420]

For those of you who don't know Tara Llanes, a world class cyclist suffered a devastating spinal cord injury at the Jeep King of the Mountain race in Beaver Creek, Colorado, in September 2007. She was racing against Jill Kintner in the semi-final when she crashed, breaking her seventh cervical vertebra.

Now she has announced "One word. Ironman. Or wait is that two? Whatever..either way there you have it. I am finally saying it out loud. I am going to try and qualify for the Ironman."

"no female in a chair has ever completed the Ironman in Kona, Hawaii let alone win it so that pretty much made the decision for me. I want to not only finish the damn thing I want to win it!"

http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/news/ar...-success-20948

[Zen]

This really isn't a surprise coming from her. I have no doubt she will do it.
Glad to see she's making lemonade, no words can describe what that kind of injury does to an athlete.

[Trek420]

no words can describe what that kind of injury does to an athlete.

I think she does a pretty good job here :

"I knew it was going to be physically hard, but I didn't think about emotionally. Right when we pulled into the parking lot to check-in Arielle Martin pedaled by on her BMX bike. She quickly turned around to come say hi to me. For those of you who don’t know Arielle Martin was 1 point away from being the first and only female to represent the US at the Olympics in BMX. Jill Kintner ended up getting that spot, but Arielle is one of the baddest women on a BMX bike. As many of you may know I was doing my best to try and make the Olympic team for BMX months before my injury. Arielle was one of the women I raced against and to see her here and knowing that a year and a half or so ago I was competing against her was ridiculously hard. I never let on that I felt that way while I was talking to her, but it was all I could do to choke back the tears. Not only that, but a good handful of the best BMX men are here getting ready for the Supercross race in Copenhagen and seeing them was hard as well. Just knowing I was “one of them” and now I’m not is mind blowing and clearly something I still need to deal with. You know you think you’re okay and then something unexpected happens and BOOM you feel like you’re at square one again. So emotionally this has been a bit of a roller coaster."

http://blogs.myspace.com/mtbtara

Makes you think. Are there many of us, a few who could handle a major injury as bravely and well?

Go Tara, Go!

[Zen]

I would bet money that she has dreams where she is riding.
I sometimes dream of running but that ain't gonna happen.

[Running Mommy]

She had a relationship with Giant bicycles, so I got to see her at events. Brave girl!! Very nice as well. Only spoke with her once, but she was very open.


One thing I noticed at Interbike last year there were a number of folks in wheelchairs. A lot of them were hanging out with the downhill and freeride crowd, which makes me think. Some of these crazy contests like the redbull rampage- are they really worth it to possibly be injured quite badly? Is the adrenilin rush worth it?? - Not that what she was doing was crazy.
But it just made me think.....

[Trek420]

Some say that of what we do, just riding to work or for play. There are risks to everything in life. If I thought too much about the risk of just getting up in the morning I'd stay in bed. "sorry, can't come to work, too dangerous out there"

My vote is it's worth it. Or more to the point you could not ask an athlete like her to spend a lifetime reflecting "what if I'd taken up a safer sport?". She would not be "her" playing tidlywinks or probably even road riding.

I work with the disabled. I also have a spinal compression fracture. One thing I've learned is nobody promises you even one more day of perfect health or even another day. Life changing injuries happen at any time in in the most unexpected ways. Actually most of the disabled I talk to were somehow harmed at work. That's it, I'm staying home.

Good for her for making lemonade! An inspiration. Ride on