Never a Bad Day by Bob Babbitt

Author:Bob Babbitt
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781782553618
Publisher: Bookwire GmbH
Published: 2013-03-11T04:00:00+00:00

He was a husband and a father and a motocross star without a career. And he was upset and depressed and didn’t have a clue how to deal with it.

Then he met Jim Knaub, a former Olympic Trials pole-vaulter who had been paralyzed in a motorcycle accident as well but had realized pretty quickly how to adapt to his new surroundings. “Jim told me he didn’t care who I was or what I’d won,” he recalls. “He gave me the tough love I needed.”

Just a few days after they met, Bailey joined Knaub for a road trip to Mexico to go deep-sea fishing and ride four-wheelers. Knaub, a five-time Boston Marathon champion in his racing chair, pushed Bailey to get into that sport as well. The next thing he knew, the two of them were off to Australia to do an event, give skydiving a try and then race the Boston Marathon. Knaub brought out the athlete that had been lying dormant inside of David Bailey.

Then it happened. Wheelers were trying to finish the Ironman under the cutoff times using a handcycle for the 112-mile bike portion and a racing chair for the 26.2-mile marathon. A goal of Bailey’s that dated back to 1986 was back in play. He went over to Hawaii in 1997 to watch John Maclean from Australia try to become the very first wheeler to finish the Ironman officially. In his previous two attempts, Maclean had missed the bike cutoff time of 5:30 p.m. On this day, though, Maclean made all of the cutoff times, and Bailey knew that when he came back in 1998, it would be his turn.

During his three year run in Kona, Bailey took third, second and, in 2000, first. His nemesis all three years was Navy SEAL Carlos Moleda, who had been paralyzed when he was shot in the back during a military operation in Panama. Bailey had beaten Moleda at the Buffalo Springs qualifier in Lubbock, Texas, in 1998 and thought the Ironman was in the bag. Not quite.

“I got smoked,” he recalls. “I was on the Queen K Highway during the handcycle. I’m in the lead, and one of the able-bodied guys in the race comes by and goes, ‘Hey, you guys are doing great.’”

“I’m thinking, ‘You guys? … What do you mean you guys. It’s just me out here.’ I asked him what he meant and he goes, ‘Oh, he’s a ways back.’ So I relaxed. Five minutes later Carlos comes by me like he’s on a scooter. I’m wondering what ‘a ways back’ meant to that guy on the bike?”

Carlos Moleda ended up getting the better of Bailey in both 1998 and 1999. But after coming from behind and finally beating Moleda in 2000, Bailey felt like that chapter in his life was over. He beat the course record holder – the guy he went to bed every night and woke up every morning thinking about; his whole family was there; and race day turned out to be his mom’s birthday.

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