Journey to Kona - The Brian Boyle's Story Part 1
Three years after a car accident that left Brian Boyle in a coma for two months Brian came back to race in the Ford Ironman in Kona finishing in 14:42. The journey from coma to personal triumph.

Prologue: Brian J Boyle is a resident of Welcome, Maryland. On 6 July 2004 Brian was returning from swimming practice when he was struck on his driver's side door by a dump truck, a near fatal accident. The collision left him in a coma and ripped his heart across his chest so violently that it had to be operated on several times to keep it beating and to put it back in its original position. His catastrophic injuries compiled a laundry list of ailments that could take up pages. In the end the doctors gave Brian a negative chance of coming out of his vegetative state, this is his story.

JOURNEY to KONA
The Brian Boyle Story

From deaths door to the start of Ironman.

With Brian C. Grenier
Photos © Brian Boyle

It was a warm summer day in Maryland, I had just finished swim practice and was heading home for some food and a planned weight room session. My confidence in the future was at an all time high as I mentally ticked off my past accomplishments and my future plans, I felt invincible! Traveling through the intersection of Ripley and Poorhouse in Welcome, Maryland my environment suddenly became engulfed in the horrific sounds of metal, glass and flesh being twisted, crushed and pulverized into something it was never intended to be, the screeching-snarling noise was overwhelming! Then:

Nothing
There is a place where nothing exists, it is darker than dark and is light at the same time, it is a void where there is no noise but all noise exists. As I seemingly traveled through this place I felt peaceful but detached. I noticed that there was love that existed along side hate and the nothingness had fullness, however my trip was to be short and tiring. I sat down on what appeared to be a curb and relaxed into this peacefulness. I started noticing that there appeared to be a change in the void around me. There was a bright light-not blinding but just a pure white light diametrically opposed to the dark void that permeated the nothingness.

This light enveloped me and formed what for all intensive purposes was a tunnel, the light seemed to exude energy, intelligence and love as I became engulfed in it. I was startled when I became aware that someone was sitting next to me talking on their cell phone. There were other people sitting in the tunnel too, some how I didn’t find this strange. I really didn’t recognize any of them but felt like I knew them all. I turned to the person on the cell phone and I asked him if he could call my parents and tell them that I loved them, when I turned away satisfied my request was completed I was staring at a bank of medical instruments, the inside of a hospital ICU room and all I felt was pain!

After spending two months in a coma, 36 blood transfusions, 13 plasma treatments, I lost a total of 100 pounds and had to go to a rehabilitation center in Baltimore. I had to learn how to talk, eat, walk, shower, and live independently again. After that agonizing experience, I had to go to outpatient therapy in Waldorf, MD. After spending a few months in a wheelchair, I took baby steps to walk on my own.

It was a miracle that I could walk again, but I wanted to prove the doctors wrong and not only walk, but run. After I accomplished that, I wanted to get back in the pool again. After a few lung tests, I was able to go in the pool a little bit each week. 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, and six months after that I began my freshman year at St. Mary's College of Maryland and also was one of the swimmers to watch on the team.

A cycling novice, Brian trains in Hawaii.

With the 50 year life expectancy I was given from the doctors, I am just trying to live each day to the fullest and motivate and hopefully inspire other people.

Pre-race TV interview.

To inspire even more, I successfully completed the Steelhead 70.3 half-ironman race in Michigan, and was also given the inspirational athlete media slot to compete in the Kona Ironman World Championships where my story and race footage will be broadcast when the Ironman premieres on NBC on Dec. 1 between 430-6pm Eastern Time Zone.

So began my journey to Kona,
“Home of The Ironman®”

Coming out of a coma is sort of like being born, exhilarating, painful and quite disorientating. I had lain in a coma induced state for 2 months both from the injuries suffered in my accident and later on through the mercy of modern medicine. My every bodily function was managed and controlled through a complicated synergy of man, medicine and machine. I had nothing to do with it.

Unknown to me was the fact that my parents had been at my side as much as humanly possible. They never gave up hope, never giving in to the darkness of endless despair and clinging on to a thread of hope that I would be me when this was all over. They were so supportive, each playing different roles at different times. I don’t have children so I can only imagine what was going through their minds, and while they have tried to share this time with me I know in my heart that words can never quite paint the picture of the torment in their hearts and minds during this time of trial.

They even set up a web site so they could get my story out and keep people informed as to how I was doing. The influx of good wishes and prayers were endless and some what overwhelming, how could I fail?

The financial toll, endless hospital and doctor’s bills are the only tangible reminder of just what a trial it was for them, the outward evidence of their never ending love. Financially it has devastated them and I am driven to give back what was so freely given! When the days get tough and the demon of doubt creeps in I ask myself, how can I give up? My parents never did!

I have concluded that the spiritual side may have been more challenging for my parents. Being a Catholic family we turn to God daily as well as in the hour of our need. However the truth be known and honesty laid bare I would have to say that if I were my parents I would have looked to the heavens a few times and asked why, now what! This may or may not have been a polite conversation, as the elastic of their faith must have been pulled to the breaking point. Cool thing about elastics though, they snap back!

Brian rides through the hell of the Kona lava fields.

Our faith tells us, as all faiths do, that God will never give us a trial we cannot handle, some times it requires us to ask for his help instead of being stubborn and handling everything ourselves! I am sure God gets tired of the endless whining of why me, now what! Funny thing though, as a survivor you tend to ask the same question except in an inquisitiorial tone:

Why Me - Now What?

I entered the waters at Kona with more emotions than I could identify. I felt confident that my warm up had been sufficient, I was no stranger to swimming races, but this was the Ironman®!

Brian finishes the swim leg of Ironman

The Ironman World Triathlon Championship or Ironman Triathlon® is an annual triathlon race, made famous by its grueling length, race conditions, and sports television coverage. Held every Fall in the US city of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii the race encompasses three endurance events of a 2.4 mile (3.86 kilometer) ocean swim in Kailua-Kona Bay, followed by a 112 mile (180.2 kilometer) bike ride across the Hawaiian lava desert to Hawaii and back), and ending with a 26 - 7/32 mile (42.195 kilometer) marathon along the coast of the Big Island (from Keauhou to Keahole Point to Kailua-Kona); finishing on Ali'i Drive

As a kid growing up, I remember watching the Ironman® on ABC, TV, I was in awe of the athletes that competed, slugging it out in the toughest one day endurance event in the world! Over the years their feats of endurance and personal strength had inspired my own athletic endeavors. Was I now being watched on TV by a young aspiring athlete some where in the heart land? The thought of being able to effect some one in such a positive way gave me chills. I looked down at my Timex watch, heard the cannon go off pushed the red start button and entered the water.

As light went to black I went into a mode that I had rehearsed in my mind thousands of times and in countless venues, swimming was my thing! The initial chaotic violence of the start gave way to the formation of organized groups of swimmers I picked one and drafted in their wake as much as I could. I settled into my normal 2-1 rhythm and let my mind go.

Recovery
"My recovery was to be the most demoralizing thing I would go through in my young life. Before the accident I was a bodybuilder, power lifter and All-American athlete/student, 18 years young and full of testosterone. I was going to college, I was going to get on the swim team, I was going to do this, I was going to do that! I had closed my eyes for a second and that future was gone."

You can’t imagine how utterly hopeless you can feel when the simplest form of communication, expression or movement is denied you! Some stranger feeding you like a baby, showing you how to eat with a spoon, damn having to wear a bib and having a nurse change your diaper UGGGGGGG…..oh God that was low! In retrospect there were some humorous moments, mostly I was depressed, demoralized and I hated who this simpleton was that had invaded my body!

When we are whole we take for granted the ability to show emotions and vent frustration, in my present state I could not express anything, I felt completely helpless. My mind would quiver with frustration and anger, with no way to express it! At night when I was all alone I would just lay there staring at the ceiling, mind racing, heart rate up and mentally making deals with God screaming why, now what! I’ll do this if you do that? He listened! There is a song by Chris Daughtry that says "be careful what you wish for as you just might get it all and then some you don’t want"

Pre race photo shoot for shoe sponsor Newton

Who the hell was this moron?
"The most infuriating thing for me in the early stages of my recovery was that I could process information just as I always had but I could not communicate it well, what the hell happened to me? I felt trapped inside my own thoughts whizzing by at 1000 miles a minute. Who was this feeble child unable to do the simplest of tasks - I am Brian the great swimmer, the All-American! Who the hell was this moron?"

Journey to Kona - The Brian Boyle Story Part 2
http://www.team-boyle.com/
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.

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