Part I - When You Don't Dream, You Die

.

Part II - Team Boyle:  Far Beyond Driven

---

Triathletes talk about the years of training it takes to handle the Ironman.  One might naturally think they mean the necessary physical shape to survive the grueling event.  And, in that case, one wonders how Brian Boyle, with only 6 weeks of training, even survived the Ironman World Championship, let alone finished.

However, the pros aren’t talking about physical fitness.  They mean it took years to develop a push-through-the-pain, never-say-die kind of attitude.  The kind of discipline that allows an athlete with a pulled hamstring to bike 112 miles against staggering headwinds, skin frying in the south pacific sun, then jog 26.2 miles with a smile on his face, thanking anyone within a two foot radius and thinking this is the best day of his life.

Boyle's Ironman Championship medal & ring.

Brian Boyle, 21, of Welcome, Maryland, has that kind of attitude and discipline in spades.  His parents say he’s always been positive, never one to give up without a struggle.  But, Boyle’s struggle to recover after his accident intensified and refined his mental discipline to a level that takes others years to achieve.  With that understanding and a knowledge of the role his parents, Garth & JoAnne Boyle, played in Brian’s recovery, it’s easy to see why Boyle’s racewear reads “Team Boyle” in large red letters. 

“It wasn’t just me doing [the race].  I couldn’t have crossed the finish-line without them,” Boyle said.  “They made it all worthwhile.  It was our journey.”

JoAnne Boyle said that the accident and its aftermath were so awful, so emotionally exhausting that neither she nor her husband had the heart left to really enjoy life.  However, watching Brian cross the finish-line looking as great as he did, “healed all the rips and tears in our hearts,” said Garth Boyle.

“It gave us life [again],” JoAnne told The Bay Net.  “He’s not just our child anymore; he’s our hero.”

.

To Walk Again, Proving Everyone Wrong

In September 2004, Brian lay in his hospital bed unable to move, eat or speak, feeling useless and hopeless.  He’d come out of his coma, but his parents still didn’t know if he’d live.  JoAnne says that at one point, Garth used a variety of colorful language to bawl-out his son for giving up.  After his dad left the room to calm down, Brian began moving a finger, the start of his commitment to recovery.

When he’d recovered enough to leave Prince George’s Hospital ICU, Boyle spent an agonizing month at the Kernan Hospital Rehabilitation Center in Baltimore.  At first physical therapy consisted of little exercises: lifting a leg a bit, squeezing a towel, then a ball.  Walking simply wasn’t on the agenda.  Boyle became disgusted.  By then, he’d moved beyond hopelessness and was ready to really work.

“I wanted to prove everybody wrong and not just squeeze a ball or a towel,” Boyle told the Bay Net.

He spent two months wheelchair-bound before taking “baby steps to walk on my own”.  However, by December 2004, he walked well and began very light jogging.  He even began to eye the new pool in his backyard with a bit of longing.  The pool was a recovery gift from his parents.

“It was a miracle that I could walk again; but, I wanted to prove the doctors wrong and not only walk, but run.  After that, I wanted to get back in the pool again,” said Boyle.  “After a few lung tests, I was able to go in the pool a little bit each week.  [And] after a few months of swimming a few laps here and there with my training partner and good buddy, Sam Fleming, I decided that I was not going to let my injuries stop me from living my dream.”

Attending college and competing on a collegiate swim team were back on his agenda.

The Steelhead half-Ironman, Boyle at the start (above) and crossing the finish (below).

Boyle constructed a rigorous training and nutrition program for himself and stuck to it.  He’d lost 100 lbs during his two months in the coma and had to build back a lot of muscle.

About one year after waking out of the coma, he began an undergraduate degree in graphic design at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.  He’s now competing on the SMCM swim team.  Additional therapy finally healed the nerve damage in his shoulder after a couple years.

.

Resurrecting Another Dream

Last June, Boyle began thinking again about the Ironman competitions.  He emailed the organizers, told them his story and asked for advice on training for an Ironman triathlon.  To his surprise, a month later, Boyle received a reply from Ironman's Vice President of Television Production, Peter Henning. 

Henning said that if Boyle could get the approval of his doctors and finish the Steelhead half-triathlon event that August, then he’d get the 2007 media spot for the October 13th Ironman World Championship in Hawaii.  Boyle had followed the televised broadcasts of the event since childhood, so he was familiar with the media competitor’s spot.  He’d loved watching the inspirational stories.

With the Steelhead 70.3 competition in Michigan only three weeks away, Boyle spent two weeks getting doctors’ approvals and one week training.  He’d never raced a bicycle before and wasn’t a distance runner.  He barely had the equipment.  He recalled training on a treadmill, a stationary bike and in the backyard pool.  Right before the event, a sponsor sent him a bike.

"When I first heard Brian's story, it was almost hard to believe," said Henning in a statement after the Steelhead event.  "Once I began looking at photos from the accident, I wondered [how it was] possible for Brian to walk let alone compete in an Ironman.  However, at the 70.3 Steelhead race, Brian truly demonstrated that anything is possible.” 

“The Steelhead was harder than the full Ironman,” Boyle told The Bay Net.  “I felt like giving up, but I made myself push through it.  It was a miracle, but I finished it.”

.

You Are An Ironman!

The morning of the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii found Boyle excited but nervous.  Over a solitary breakfast, he thought about his recovery process and his family.  Then, “this confidence just came over me; which was new,” he admitted.  “Only six weeks of training didn’t give me [much] confidence.”

While Brian was prepped at the race site in the pre-dawn hour, Henning placed Garth and JoAnne in the transition area where they stood and worried.  JoAnne worried about how her son would hold up physically, but had no doubts about his determination.  Garth thought Brian would make it “if the equipment did”.  He knew bike wrecks were common and it was Boyle’s weakest event.

“My son has never failed at anything he’s started in his life,” said Garth matter-of-factly.

In addition to the difficult course and great distances, Brian faced the challenge of vying for a place in a mob of 1786 other competitors.  Within the packs of competitors, one easily got knocked over, kicked, gouged, dunked or tripped.  Injuries and wrecks ended the race for 101 people that day, including one young woman favored to win the event.

The frenzy during the swim.

Biking through the lava fields.

Boyle grins during the marathon.

The sound of cannon-fire began the swim segment, Boyle’s strongest event.  Although his skills got him to the front of the pack, he pulled a hamstring in the mêlée.  Pictures of the swim show churning water surrounding what looks like a gigantic school of piranhas in swim caps and wet suits.

“[The swim] literally is a feeding frenzy.  It was a blood-bath, every man for himself,” Boyle told The Bay Net. 

Garth and JoAnne kept sharp eyes on their son’s purple cap during the swim; but, when Boyle left on his bike around 8 a.m., they knew they wouldn’t see him for about seven hours. JoAnne had heard athletes and coaches talking about the isolation, heat and powerful crosswinds through the lava fields.  She fretted a bit, but knew her son had the right mindset. 

Boyle credits Divine Intervention for helping him narrowly miss joining a multi-bike pileup within the first couple of miles of the bike segment.  After that excitement, he hunkered down for a lonely 112 mile ride through the island’s lava fields.  During the 7.5 hours it took to complete the bike course, he recalled his thoughts from breakfast.

“Those headwinds could break your spirit if you’re not ready for it,” Boyle told The Bay Net.  Thoughts of his family’s support and his faith in God gave him strength during the lonely stretches of road. 

At the end of the bike segment, Boyle transitioned to the marathon with enough time remaining in the competition that he could have walked the course, but he wouldn’t.  The sun had set by the time he approached the toughest part of the marathon, up and down a gruelingly long hill.  Henning placed Garth and JoAnne near the hill, hoping to catch the family’s interaction on film. 

JoAnne said that as Boyle approached the hill, they shouted for him to save his strength and walk the hill.  The broad grin that he flashed them as he jogged up the hill told them he felt just fine.  That, and the way he kept high-fiving and thanking event volunteers along the way.  All day, event volunteers told JoAnne & Garth how wonderfully polite Brian was.  Many other athletes, evidently, said nothing or were downright grumpy to the volunteers.

“The whole time I was thinking to myself, ‘WOW I get to compete with these world class athletes!’  I was enjoying every second,” Boyle told The Bay Net.  “It was the greatest day of my life and it was the most exciting day of my life.  It was so much fun.”

About halfway through the marathon, JoAnne remembers the mood changing to excitement as people realized that Boyle was going to make it.  LifeSport Coaches, Lance Watson and Paul Regensburg joined Boyle on the course about 15 miles before the finish line.  The Cannondale executives (who not only gave Boyle his bike, but also flew out to support him), trailed behind in an SUV “blasting music and keeping me psyched”.  Everyone left about 500 yards before the finish line, so Brian could enjoy the moment on his own. 

.

Crossing the Line

“We didn’t expect him to look so good [when he crossed the finish].  We expected him to have wobbly legs,” JoAnne Boyle told The Bay Net.  “He looked so happy.  I haven’t seen him that happy in a long time.  WE were so happy.”

Just before the finish line, Boyle slowed to a walk and strode across, he said, in remembrance of the moment his doctors said he wouldn’t walk again.  On the line with arms outstretched, he took time to revel in the moment, turning a slow circle to take a good look around. 

“It was the greatest day of my life and I tried to savor every second,” said Boyle.

After a quick bicep flex, an in-joke for his parents, he walked straight into his father’s waiting arms and pulled his mother into the hug as well.

“We did it.  We did it!” he repeated to them.

Boyle finished the Ironman World Championship Triathlon in 14 hours and 42 minutes.  121 people finished after he did.  101 people didn’t finish the race at all. 

.

Saved for a Purpose

“When we were in the hospital, it was so difficult because there was no one to talk to.  No one could really relate,” Boyle told The Bay Net.  His family pulled together, each with different moments of emotional strength. 

“The one thing that kept me alive from the beginning is what keeps me going today, and that is help and support from family and friends, they never gave up on me and I can't give up on them.  Everything that I do and try and accomplish is for them and because of them,” said Boyle.

Brian Boyle wants his story public so other struggling people know they have someone who can relate to hopeless situations, someone to “talk to when things look impossible”. 

“I'm just trying to turn my negative situation into something positive and hopefully inspire a few people along [the way].” 

Meanwhile, Boyle works to finish his degree at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and now has dreams to qualify for the Ironman World Championship on his own merits.

“It’s the best sport I’ve ever done,” Boyle admits.  “It’s rare for me to find a sport that I liked training for as much as I liked [the Ironman].” 

.

You can watch Brian Boyle at the Ironman World Championship when the race coverage premieres on NBC on Dec. 1 between 4:30 – 6 p.m. Eastern.

.

Links

Cannondale: "Anything Is Possible" – sponsor
Bio on 4EverFit website – main sponsor
Boyle’s MySpace page
Speaking Out for Prince George’s Hospital
Triathlete Magazine:  2007 Kings of Kona

.

Photos and title phrases courtesy of Brian Boyle. Used with permission.

Charles County Editor, Anna Dailey welcomes your comments on all Charles County issues.  Please leave feedback in the box below or contact her via email: annadailey@thebaynet.com .