Becoming a Winner – part 3

Mark

When I did my first Ironman, I did 13.50, I wasn’t happy, I didn’t feel like a winner at all. When Mark did his first Ironman in Taupo 2005, he did 13.50 and he was a winner.

See, in November 2003, Mark was out having a run one afternoon training for the Coomera Half Ironman. An idiot driving too fast around a corner, lost control of his commodore in the gravel and mounted the footpath. Driving Mark through a paling fence and running over him.

Mark was rushed to hospital having lost so much blood that doctors patched him up but would not operate on him until he was strong enough to handle it. They thought he wouldn’t make it to the operation.

He gained some strength and looked like he might be worth the gamble. He had three broken ribs, a punctured lung, he lost half his liver and a kidney. They managed to fit 18 units of blood into him and around 100 stitches.

It takes more than that to kill a Cyco. His wife tried to make a claim on his personal accident /trauma policy and was told this didn’t fit their criteria of trauma??? When Mark was able, he was wheeled into the Suncorp Insurance office he lifted his shirt and showed them his stitched up stomach, criscrossed with  scars. He asked them, “Does this look like trauma”. They paid.

Doctors told Mark he would never be the same and to expect a three year recovery. By September 2004 he felt he was ready to try himself in a Half Ironman at Yeppoon. He did that OK and then set his sights on Taupo 2005.

He raced his first Ironman in Taupo finishing in 13hrs 50min and he was a Winner. Mark has a busy life and travels a lot with work. He doesn’t have time to train for triathlon but cycles lots and has just returned from a five day bike tour of the Rockies, cycling up to 12,000 feet.

Winning has more to do with getting up when you’ve been knocked down than fast times.