“I’m extremely blessed to have healed from it and be functional and do what I do now,” says Tennyson, a recent graduate of the University of Washington who has worked with a company that provides guides for vision-impaired athletes. “It’s changed my life and perspective and what I want to do professionally.”


Dealing with the physical challenges proved even more difficult than the mental challenges. Before the accident, he was playing summer league baseball for a small college near his home in Bremerton, Wash. Advanced for his age, he dreamed of playing professionally, perhaps in the major leagues.


He tried to return to the diamond after the fall, but something as simple as running the bases or moving behind the plate as a catcher proved too jarring. It was four years before he could handle a brisk walk around a golf course.


Eventually he could trot and then run. Two months after taking his first running strides, he entered a half marathon, finishing in 1 hour, 32 minutes. Having swum competitively from the ages of 5 to 9, it wasn’t long before he was entering triathlons.


By 2009, he had worked his way up to half-Iron distance races, finishing three events. Last year, friends challenged him to join them for the ultra-distance Vineman Triathlon, the scenic race that goes through California wine country. As part of a special buy-two-get-one-free entry promotion, Tennyson could race for free.


His schoolwork at Washington presented a challenge for training. So too did an annual summer gig working on a commercial fishing boat in Alaska. The 25-day stretch fell within the last five weeks before the race.


So he improvised. Since the water in Alaska was too cold for swimming, even with a wetsuit, Tennyson simulated his swim stroke on the deck of the boat using elastic bands. He purchased an old $25 stationary bike and brought it along, somehow keeping it operational as it deteriorated from the salt and sea. On days off, if the tides were right, the captain — a former runner at the University of Oregon — would beach the boat and let Tennyson run trails.


Somehow Tennyson managed to work the training around the stresses of commercial fishing, which is tough work with demanding captains, long hours and dangerous conditions. The upside is sharing financially in what hopefully is a large haul of fish.


“The boats are relatively small, but they’re really deep,” Tennyson said. “We have fish holds that have up to 15,000 pounds of fish.”


He finished Vineman with a time of 12:50:15, a strong time for anyone, but especially for someone less than a decade removed from brain injury who had logged nearly a month of key training time on a fishing boat. His 2011 schedule includes three Ironman 70.3 races.


“I’d like to continue racing for the rest of my life and use it for more of a greater good, showing what people can do,” he says. “Triathlon can be a self-oriented sport, with people focused on winning an age group award or qualifying for Kona. When you look at impaired people and CAF (Challenged Athlete Foundation) athletes, we have a different perspective. It’s fun to win and that’s why you race, but we’re stoked just to be alive.”

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 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140