Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44FOCUS - FEBRUARY 2017 19 ally rob him of the 4% vision he has left, but it has never slowed him down. “It’s the same thing when you race with him, by the way, “ Ryan adds. “When people pass us, notice that I am blind, and say things like, ‘Great job!’ Syd usually shoots back, “He’s not that great!”. Though he may not share Syd’s caustic sense of hu- mour, the two share a monster work ethic. Like Syd, Ryan was performing at a national level in his respective age group right up until 2009 when his worsening eyesight and a visual misjudgment of a pothole sent him tumbling towards solo-racing retirement. Instead of letting the near-death tumble get him down however, he bought a tandem bike and composed a post on Facebook asking for someone to assist him in an upcoming triathlon. Enter Syd. “I saw the posting and thought, Yeah. This might be a fun thing to do. Once.” Like many sports at the competitive level, the pool of exceptional triathlete’s competing at the national level is very small: most people know each other through reputation. So despite Syd’s characteristic dark humour, he knew about Ryan and recognized that he was a fantas- tic athlete, blind or not. A few weeks later, the two met in Ryan’s hometown of Chatham to see if they could work together and things got off to an “interesting” start when Syd began to tell Ryan everything that was wrong with the tandem bike that they would be racing on. “Am I gonna be able to work with this guy without punching him?” Ryan recalls with a laugh. A long successful training ride later provided him with his answer. “Brotherly ribbing aside, I realized that we had a lot to work with.” So, how do assisted triathlon pairings work, you ask? Well, the pictures I later pore over on the Internet tell the story with a great deal of care. With the exception of the bike portion of the race (which is performed on tandem with both athletes cycling), the swim and run sections are executed with the two men connected to a tether, separated at about an arm’s length from each other. In most cases, the sighted guide takes the lead in order to insure that they are going straight. To say there was very little informa- tion out there when the two started their first race – a half- Ironman in Peterborough in 2009 – is an understatement. Both had to learn by trial and error and keep their egos in check, a tough task for two high-performance athletes who are accustomed to working alone. And it would be safe to say that their push/pull was slightly metaphorical as well. ...................... Please turn to page 22 Did you hear the one about the…..? Syd and Ryan having a laugh while competing in the running leg of the triathlon. Call John: 905 434 0517 • 905 985 8569 www.lucykrenovations.com Renovations from the outside in, we can do it all! .... the pictures say it all BEFORE AFTER Referrals are the core of our business