The+Ironman

[|It's what I do every day of my life.]



A monologue

Daughter: You are my inspiration, father. You were always there to play 10 second tidy-up and you listened to me sing myself to sleep every night because I was afraid of the dark. You would talk to me across the rooms when singing wasn’t sufficient. You went to school and came home and dealt with obnoxious teenagers day-in and day-out and still had the energy to deal with tiny toddler me. You ran, you swam, and you went biking. I remember you used to go running an easy 20 miles and come home just as I was waking up fir pancakes. Your first Ironman what I remember was the Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. I can barely remember where the second one was- Wisconsin with the cheese heads? Perhaps. The third one we had to fly the whole way across the country to Idaho where virtually nothing was, even potatoes were hard to find. And still every soccer practice you would coach and kick the ball around probably more than most of us did. You fourth Ironman I didn’t even get to go to, but I watched you cross the finish line that night from my dorm room. The fifth one was “your last” because your body is beginning to collapse. They told you not to push it when you were younger, but you don’t listen, and I suppose that’s where I get it from. Two weeks before and on mile 93 on your bike, you were thrown off track. Not by the arthritis in your knees, but by an absent minded car who didn’t think to look at the bike that was fast approaching. You slammed on the brakes and you flipped over the handlebars..apparently. What I remember was I went to breakfast and settled in to have a fulfilling day of homework when my roommate ran up the stairs with my vibrating purse. A number I didn’t know. “Hello, this is Renee Rudolph.” “Renee, I just want you to know I’m okay.” At first I didn’t even know who it was. Back on the phone. “I’m okay. Okay? I was hit by a car on my bike and I’m in the ambulance.” I don’t really remember any other words except Hershey hospital. Where is Hershey hospital? Is it Penn state Hershey hospital? I was filled with a dislike of my stupidity with hospitals. I got there before he was done with the MRI’s and the ..something else’s. They rolled him in with a neckbrace on, biking jersey cut off from the paramedics and all I thought was there lays an Ironman. They had to roll him back out and I saw liquid next to his eye. Maybe it was because of the light, maybe it was because I was there. My dad the Ironman defeated by gravel and by a car. My Dad the Ironman with a broken collarbone and shattered elbow. My Dad with a lost purpose but, my Dad is an Ironman, and he will always be an Ironman. He’s more than an Ironman, he’s a...he’s. He’s my Dad.