Sympathy is just a natural human instinct. It’s normal to feel a twinge of it whenever you come across someone who is faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges. Yet when you see what Rudy Garcia-Tolson has been able to do despite his numerous disabilities, you are more inclined to feel awe or even envy. A competitor in every sense of the word, Rudy is determined to do things better and faster than the guy next to him, physical limitations be damned.
When he was 8 years old, Rudy entered his first swim meet. “I had learned how to swim just a few months before,” he recalls. “I definitely had the butterflies, and that was all new to me, but I loved that feeling of being up on the blocks and waiting for the referee to tell you to go. It was a 25 free, and I think I finished dead last. But after that first race, I just wanted to get back in there. I loved the water and the way it felt; I loved everything about it.”
But Rudy’s athletic spirit wasn’t born that day. That day, he was just another kid in the pool, and that’s what mattered. “I didn’t get the drive right away, and I didn’t say that I wanted to be a Paralympian. I just thought it was fun.”
Fun was a bit tougher to come by for Rudy in his early childhood. By the time he was 5 years old, he had gone through 15 surgeries in an attempt to help him overcome — to the extent it was possible — his physical disabilities, which included pterygium syndrome, a clubfoot, webbed fingers on both hands, and a cleft lip and palate. Eventually, Rudy made the decision to undergo a double leg amputation above the knees. The road to normalcy was rough enough, he rationalized, without going under the knife in perpetuity with less-than-glorious results.
It was a brave decision that would have a ripple effect on countless others. Rising to prominence in the world of triathlon, Rudy has also managed to capture gold at two Paralympic Games in swimming. More recently, he crossed the finish line at an Ironman, the pinnacle of triathlon. There may be little left for the 21-year-old to prove in his fast-paced athletic career, but so long as there are challenges out there to tackle, you can count on hearing chants of “Rudy” at event finish lines.
Rudy Garcia-Tolson
- Birthdate: September 14, 1988
- Birthplace: Loma Linda, California
- Current residence: Bloomington, California
Q: What do you have coming up in 2010?
Rudy: The big race, if I can qualify, is Kona [for the 2010 Ironman World Championship]. I want to get back in and finish. I missed the cutoff last year by a few minutes. I was about 8 minutes off of the bike cutoff, so as soon as I came in, my race was over. Going into the race, there was a bit of hype about me doing it, but I don’t really listen to it because it gets in your head and makes you do weird things. My leg got infected a few weeks beforehand, so I wasn’t able to prepare the way I wanted, but I don’t have any excuses before or after. When I first got off the bike, I was embarrassed, thinking, “Man, this sucks.” But I think you learn a lot more from your failures. The goal now is to go back to Hawaii and make a statement.
Q: You’ve done an Ironman. You’re a Paralympic gold medalist: What has been your biggest personal accomplishment?
Rudy: Honestly, just helping out other kids. All the kids coming out that are 5, 6, 7 years old that are missing a leg or two legs. Just having them around so they can see me and say, “Hey, this guy has what I have and is doing whatever he wants to, so I can do it too.” It’s important to spread that message. What happens on race day isn’t important. What happens when you help people is. It doesn’t matter how much money you have — it matters how many people you can help. With Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF), we’ve been doing a good job of that. I’m a spokesperson for them, so if there are speaking engagements that come up, then I go. We also do a lot of sports clinics for kids, so they can check out all the sports, so they can get hooked on something.
Q: During an Ironman, there’s so much time alone with your thoughts. What goes through your mind? Are you thinking about your strategy? Your breathing?
Rudy: I’m just thinking about what I’m doing at the moment. I don’t think about what’s ahead. When I’m running that marathon, I think that I’ve already done so much, there are so many miles behind me. But thinking ahead, your mind starts playing tricks on you. I try to stay in the moment and embrace the energy all around me. People encourage each other along the way. The goal is to get to the finish line. When I finished the Arizona Ironman, I did it in 16:06:27. It was a really long day. Coming up to that finish line was an awesome feeling.
[Editor’s note: Rudy’s performance in Arizona made him the first double above-the-knee amputee to finish an Ironman race.]
Q: How much time do you spend training each day? What’s your typical training day like?
Rudy: It varies depending on the discipline and the distance. On an average day, it’s about 3–5 hours broken up between doing some core, some pool, and the bike. Then on the weekends — those are my longer days — 5–6 hours with a 2-hour run. Training for an Ironman is nuts because you have to train for three events and each of them is really long. Just training for a marathon, the regular person can go out and do it with no problem, but it takes like 6 months. It’s just a lot of time. It’s easy to get distracted or unmotivated. With Ironman, you’re always looking for a little extra motivation to get you out of bed and to keep you going. The reason why I love it is because it’s such a long day and there’s always something you can be working on to get you a little bit faster. Honestly, I think it’s the toughest race in the world. You can be out there 16, 17 hours, and the pros are doing 8 or 9 hours, some getting picked up by medics along the way.
Q: How important is nutrition for you as an endurance athlete?
Rudy: I’ve lived at the Olympic Training Center and I’ve been getting the nutrition spiel for a long time. The last few years, I’ve been focusing on my nutrition because I used to focus so heavily on my training. At the OTC, everything is all good. When I’m at home and training, I try to eat pasta and some protein. But if I’m just hanging out at home, I like pizza and hot Cheetos
®! But I use PowerBar
® Performance Energy bars every time I train. My favorite is the original peanut butter Performance Energy bar. I also use gels and the recovery drinks. The gels are just like gummy bears to me, so I squirt them in my mouth and I’m good to go. I believe that the Ironman is 20% physical, 20% mental, and the rest is nutrition. If you don’t have your nutrition ready before the race, you’re going to have a tough time. We’ve got to fuel our bodies right. We’re like cars, and we need the right gas in the tank.
Q: How do you eat during a long race?
Rudy: I have a box of cut-up PowerBar Performance energy bars that I eat from every 15–20 minutes. I also carry water and Gatorade
® and sip on that every 10–20 minutes. It also depends on the weather — if it’s hotter, it’s different.
Q: What other major goals do you have in sports?
Rudy: My main goal competitively is to go back to Hawaii and finish the Kona. I’d like to go back to the Paralympics in 2012. After that, I’m not too sure. I’m sure there’s got to be something really challenging out there.
Q: You like to compete for fun in events that most humans find so fundamentally challenging or even dangerous. Why?
Rudy: I just dig it out there when I’m racing. When I’m out there, I feel like there’s nothing wrong with me. I’m not out there to finish — I’m out there to race. I’m just a natural-born athlete. I love the feeling before and after competing. Also I want to show the world that just because you’re challenged, it’s nothing. The real disability is not what you see — it’s what you think. I like to show people that you can do anything that you set your mind to. I want to show the new generation of kids that are in my situation that they can do things they didn’t think possible.
If you’re interested in knowing about other PowerBar® Team Elite™ athletes or how you can join the ranks, click on the Team Elite link at PowerBar.com.
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