The day after putting his body through the torture that is an Ironman triathlon, Jeremy Woodward couldn't have been more exhausted.
Or any happier.
“You're hurting. You feel like a train hit you,” Woodward said. “But it's a good hurt, though. And it's only temporary. You only hurt for a couple of days, and then you're good to go. That pain is easier than having your chest ripped open for open-heart surgery.”
Woodward is uniquely qualified to make that comparison, having twice undergone such a procedure, the latter of which came barely in the nick of time to save his life in 2007. It was during his recovery from that second surgery, which required doctors to replace a failed tissue valve in his heart with a mechanical one, that Woodward dedicated himself to the idea of competing in an Ironman race.
The initial reaction from Sean Snow, the friend he confided in and the man who would become his trainer for the event?
“I told him, 'If I get through this operation and get the go-ahead, I want to do an Ironman someday,' ” Woodward said, recounting the conversation he had in the hospital with Snow. “His first reaction was, 'You're nuts.' “
By that standard Woodward remains nuts, as he intends to run two more Ironman events in 2012, the first in Lake Placid – the site of his initial conquest – in July and the second in Arizona in November.
Woodward has experienced no setbacks since his second heart surgery in 2007, exercising as many as six days a week while also running High Point Fitness in Concord and raising a daughter – with another on the way – alongside his wife, Brook.
Oh, yeah, and he did that whole Ironman thing. Which isn't much, really. Just a 2.4-mile swim followed by a 112-mile bike ride.
With a full, 26.2-mile marathon for dessert.
“The whole Ironman philosophy is 'Anything is possible,' and [my race] proved that anything is possible. You can go from heart failure to coming across the finish line at an Ironman.”
Not that crossing the finish line was easy. It took Woodward more than 15 hours to get there, a journey that began with a swim alongside more than 3,000 of his closest friends that he compared to “being in a washer and dryer.”
After being pounded by swinging arms and legs for the better part of two miles, Woodward managed the bike ride and the first portion of the run before feeling the true weight of the day on the crucial home stretch.
“You get to about mile 13 of the run, and the last 13 miles are pretty tough,” Woodward said. “You have many conversations with God, and I had a couple of them.”
He's had a few in his day. He first had open-heart surgery in 2000 when doctors inserted the aforementioned tissue valve that was supposed to afford him a normal life for at least 15 years.
Instead he was back in the hospital seven years later in stage four of heart failure – the most advanced stage – having blown up like a balloon with almost 50 pounds of fluid weight as his organs systematically shut down.
Doctors still can't believe he walked into the hospital for treatment under his own power, an accomplishment that came after a 3 1/2 hour ride to Boston that Woodward remembers little of due to the fog he was living in.
That was the low point. It's been high points and little else since.
Woodward wanted to raise $140,000 for the New Hampshire chapter of the Nature Conservancy before his first Ironman event; he wound up raising more than $201,000. What's more, he has received clearance to compete in both of the 2012 events, and he plans to raise money for the Ironheart Foundation.
He has seen his daughter, Elliana, celebrate her third birthday, and he and Brook are expecting their second daughter anytime in the coming days.
He's even received worldwide recognition, having been named one of 25 winners of the Medtronic Global Hero Award, given annually to accomplished athletes who have benefited from medical technology. He and his family received an all-expenses paid trip to Minneapolis, where he received the award and took part in the Medtronic Twin Cities 10 Mile Race last October.
He will also be featured in an upcoming documentary centered on five runners from around the country who will compete in the Arizona Ironman next November. All have had heart surgery, all have competed in an Ironman, and all will be competing in at least one more.
That's not something Woodward takes for granted, though he credits his progress and current state largely to others.
“I had great people around me: my family, my friends and my wife. I had an incredible support group behind me, and it does make all the difference,” Woodward said. “It was easy to get through because of that.”
He encourages others to get through things the same way, with both eyes focused squarely on the future.
“Keep your head up, have positive thoughts and just know that you can do anything,” he said.
