Tyler Stewart, however, has overcome a number of obstacles to become an ironman winner. In 2008 in the Hawaii ironman, her bike seat came off and she had to stand while riding on her bike for an hour until she fixed it. Consequently her legs were fried for the run.
She decided to do Ironman Arizona six weeks later, but was sick during that time. During the race, she was seeing spots and blacking out. She spent several hours convulsing in the medical tent with no idea what was wrong with her. It turned out that she was prescibed a dangerous amount of medicine for a routine thyroid condition. She spents month recovering and had to fight fatigue and pain to get back into shape.
In 2009, after a rough swim in Couer d'Alene, she smashed the bike course and ran fast enough to beat second place by nine minutes.
What really impressed me in that after winning the race, she went back to the finish line at 11 p.m. to watch the last racers come in. She stated:" ...I realized, as I do each time I am lucky enough to make it to the final hour of an Ironman, that I am not the real Ironman. It is those people who are out there all day, challenging themselves with every step, with every bit of inspiration that brought them to the start line. They are the winners in my mind and I am so happy to be a part of something, a sport, that is a goal for so many to accomplish in their lifetimes. Anyone that even attempts an Ironman should be proud of themselves."
As a probable 16 1/2-17 hour ironman finisher(I hope) and and Ironman Arizona 2008 DNFer, I was impressed by the humility and generousity of this sentiment. I don't have the talent nor training of a pro. I probably have less talent than most of the age groupers racing an ironman. In the end it is not going to matter. The real win is overcoming the challenges of fatigue and pain and preseversing through the darkness and fear, whomever your are.
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