Disability Talks: Don't Dis My Ability
Disability Talks: Don't Dis My Ability
Cycling Against the Odds with Rodger Krause
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Rodger Krause is a handcycle triathlete who has competed in the toughest Ironman challenges in North America. 18 years after becoming partially paralyzed, he trained himself with a handcycle in order to continue participating in his passion: triathlons.
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Welcome to Disability Talks, a podcast produced by Abilities in Motion. I'm your host Ed Granger . Join us to encounter unique perspectives on accessibility and independence, and to hear stories from everyday people living their most independent everyday lives where essential conversations find their place. Let's talk.
EdOur guest on the podcast today is Roger Krause , a certified public accountant here in Berks County, PA, as well as a longtime triathlete. Roger's participation in the sport of triathlon received a serious setback when he was struck by a car while out training resulting in a spinal cord injury. But as it turns out, that injury was not the end of Roger's athletic journey. We're grateful to be able to share Roger's story in his own words. I'm joined as co-host today by Stephanie Quigley . Stephanie is the Executive Director here at Abilities in Motion, and like Roger, a graduate of Shippensburg University.
StephanieSo Roger, I'm so glad you're with us and willing to talk to us today. I became aware of your remarkable story in fitness through the Ship Magazine. We're both SHIP alumni and wanted to make a , a shout out to our alma mater first and foremost. I graduated in 95 and most recently graduated in 2022 with my Masters from Ship. So I know you're also a SHIP alum , and I wanted to welcome you with that intro.
RodgerOh , congratulations.
StephanieWhen did you attend Ship?
RodgerOh, I was there from 76 to 80. I graduated in 80. I had good memories of that place,
Stephanie<laugh> for sure. Yeah. Is that where you kind of got started on in sports or fitness, or is that something that you've done lifelong or, or is it something you discovered in, in college while you were at Ship?
RodgerNo, I , I was always into sports. I grew up in the city in Reading. I attended 13th in Union, Northeast Reading High, and I played sports all along the way.
EdSo, at some point, you, you found your way to triathlon, which is a main sport you compete in now. And I , if I remember correctly, you know, your, your biking started with Awin varsity, which can be said of a lot of kids from the seventies. So, you know, can you share a little bit about how you got started in that re disciplined sport that everybody kind of admires, people that do it because it's so difficult.
RodgerThe , the way it came about was I played, I was on the golf team at Shippensburg, but golf was a spring sport at Shippensburg in college, and I looked for something to do in the fall. So while I was at Ship, I would oftentimes go out for a run, go back through , Seavers apartments and out the back way and run on those rural roads back there. And , um, I , I had a route that wound around and came out back by College Park Apartments at Shippensburg. So I was always into running and I had swam for the Reading high swim team when I was in high school. So I had a , a half decent running and swimming background. And then shortly after graduation, I was with my brother Bob Krause , who's also a Ship alum. He graduated in 82. We were at his house and , and he had two bikes and he had been competing in triathlons before I was, and so he loaned me his one bike. One day we went out for a ride and , um, I thought, Wow, this is great. We , we , we already have a swimming background. You already have a running background. If you just add cycling to the repertoire, you , you can do a triathlon. So about 1988 , that's when I entered my first triathlon.
EdAnd tell us a little bit about how, what kind of competitions you were doing and, you know, what kind of successes you were having in triathlon. What , you know, what was it about it that, you know, made you, you know, wanna continue doing it?
RodgerIt's just a fun sport. They're , they're good athletes. It , it's a well rounded sport. You're not always running and, and putting stress on your legs. You're not always swimming and putting stress on your shoulders and arms and , and they , they were all good physical exercises, so it was a well rounded sport and I enjoyed that .
EdSo I think what , where your story kind of takes its turn from reading your story was in , uh, 1999 and you are cycling one day and, and share with us the story of, of what happened then and how that kind of changed your story.
RodgerYou're exactly right. It was December of 1999 . It was an unseasonably warm Saturday afternoon in the beginning of December. And I went out for a short one hour bike ride . I used to live in South Heidelberg Township. So I went up over the mountain to , uh, Route 897 and Route 897 comes to an intersection in the road where it's Cocalico Road and it's the , the original village of Cocalico. And , and right near there, I I was just proceeding along the white line on the right hand side of the road and , and a car came at me. He didn't actually make contact, but he came very close to me and , uh, forced me off the road. And you might have heard the old adage, a ditch alongside the road. There really was a ditch alongside the road at that point. And I , uh, I fell off my bike and I , I fell into the ditch. It was fairly deep. It was about 10 feet off to the side of the road. I had a T 12 thoracic number 12 spinal cord injury. That's what happened in December of 1999 .
EdSo somehow from from that point, you, you actually found your way back to triathlon, into competing. So, you know, I I'm sure that's, that story had a lot of stages to it, you know, what kind of motivated you when you were kind of doing your, your rehab and your physical therapy just to kind of get back to your normal life?
RodgerI , I was always confident I , I would make a lot of rehabilitated progress, but I , I wasn't aware shortly after the injury, I wasn't aware how long it would take it , it's just a long, long process. And I always stuck with the swimming part of it. That was easy. But because my, my gait and my legs were affected by the injury, the lower body, your , your T 12 is right around your belly button level. So anything below that point, you're gonna have a , a deficit. And I , I'm what they consider spinal cord injury incomplete, which means I still have some sensation, still have coordination below the level of injury, but , uh, not nearly as much as I used to have. So I kept swimming all the years after my injury. And then in about 2005 , Chris Kaag, who has the, IM ABLE Foundation Corps Fitness, he loaned me his hand cycle. He actually lived very, actually his father lived very close to me and he loan me his hand cycle for a weekend. So the bug bit me, <laugh> and , and I was back in to cycling and , and I , I , I figured out a way I , I could ride a , a cycle, not a bicycle, but a hand cycle. And then shortly, maybe a couple years later in 2008 or 2009, a few years later, Chris also started to get into what we call push chair or racing wheelchair competitions. And they're , they're basically manual powered wheelchairs, similar to a regular wheelchair, but it has a third wheel out front so that if you hit a bump, you won't go tumbling out of your wheelchair seat . So he introduced me to that too. And that was in 2009. And then shortly after that I started to do Chris Kaag's triathlon and other triathlons just fell into place.
EdAnd that's the, I believe Chris still still does that one in Mount Gretna. Is that the , the one that you had gotten back into?
RodgerDid you say Mount Gretna?
EdUh, I think Mount Gretna is where, is where Chris does a tri , it still does a triathlon there, if I remember correctly.
RodgerYep . That was it. At first time I did it, I just did it as part of a relay. In fact, the first couple of years is part of a relay. And then I thought, well, geez , I , I can do this whole thing. So I started to do the whole race and um, I think I've done that just about every year, except , um, we didn't have the race in 2019, 20 or 21, but I did it again this spring. This past May.
StephanieIs that the, got the nerve challenge? Is that what he calls it?
RodgerYep . It's usually the weekend before Memorial Day, about the third week in May. Always a cold swim cause water's not <laugh>. And , and they , they , they drain that lake at Mount Gretna. So it's, it's freshly filled about a week before Labor Day and , and we're some of the first to go in the water after it's filled. It's normally a very cold swim.
StephanieSo what did that, what did that do for your drive to get back to getting, you know, setting some goals as completing another Ironman getting access to that hand cycle for the first time? Is that kind of what re refocused you back on? Yeah, my , my goal is to get to Kona or complete another triathlon. What significance did that access to that hand cycle have for you?
RodgerYou know, getting back to the rehabilitation process, I was never aware everything would take so long. And so when I first got Chris Kaag's hand cycle, I was really excited about riding hand cycle again. But it , it was another year or two or three till I really started to envision the possibility that I could do a triathlon again. When , when I first had my injury, I , I just put cycling and, you know, anything I normally did like running with my legs, it was off the table. I had no idea how I could possibly do that. But then with a hand cycle and a , a push chair or a racing wheelchair, I , I saw ways that this could all come about again. And so it was a very long process. It took years. To answer your question, I can't recall exactly when I set up the goal of doing another triathlon, but without, you know, getting too far ahead of myself. I can tell you more about setting the goal to do an Ironman race at Lake Placid .
StephanieYeah, tell us a little bit about that.
RodgerWell, that was another friend Kevin Moore. He's an attorney with Leisawitz Heller. Uh , they're now Barley Snyder here in , in Berks County. And Kevin and I had raced together prior to my injury , and then he started to race Lake Placid , which is normally in July each year. And that's a full distance Ironman, that's 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and a 26 mile run . And, and there's cutoffs. You can't just enter that race and, and you know, kind of mosey your way on through it there , there's time cutoffs and you have to hit those cutoffs or you'd be taking off the race course. So Kevin was doing this race in 2015 and 16 and told me what a great venue, nice place, Lake Placid was. And I thought, geez , you know, I , I've been swimming all this time. I , I started to hand cycle again. I started getting the push chair racing, I could do this. And so in 2017 I signed up for my first Ironman race following my injury, and that was at Lake Placid and that was because of Kevin Moore.
EdSo tell us a little bit about how that , how that race went for you. Um , what was that experience like?
RodgerLake Placid is a very hilly, mountainous course. It , it's very difficult from a biking standpoint. You do two loops, two mountainous loops out and around Lake Placid , and it's very difficult to do on a bike . And it's even more difficult on a handcycle. You just don't go as fast on three wheels as you do on two and pedalling with your arms just as not , it's just not as fast as pedaling with your legs. So it's a more difficult race. And in an Ironman triathlon, there's a 10 and a half hour cumulative time cutoff for the swim bike. So from the time you start to swim to the time you finish the bike, you have 10 and a half hours. And the first time I did it, I was like 11 and a half hours. I I didn't make the cutoff. And so they took me off the race course in 2017 .
EdBut obviously the , the story doesn't end there. So you , you go back the next year, I believe, if I, if I read correctly and you , uh, improve your bike time, by over an hour. So what , what kind of kicked in for you as far, far as like, the motivation to get back there and to actually get to finish the race that next time?
RodgerOh, well, it's like anything in life when , when you , uh, don't succeed, you come back twice as hard . It's like, you're not gonna let it get the best of you . You always , you know , I can beat this . So in 2017 , after Lake Placid , I got a new bike. I hired a coach and I started to get really serious about training. And in 2018 , I , I had a really good race, but I didn't realize this at the time. I was seven minutes past the 10 and a half hour cutoff. So I , I was actually 10 hours and about 37 minutes. And Ironman didn't even know it. The Ironman officials didn't even know it. And so I completed that whole race. I , I did the swim, the bike in the run, all 26 miles of the run. And then late that night, I noticed in the results that I was DNF did not finish.
EdWow.
RodgerAnd I was like, you know, what's going on here? So sure enough, I looked into it and it became evident that according to the officials, and , and I think I was sadly , uh, seven minutes late , uh, getting through the 10 and a half hour cutoff. So technically, even though I did the whole race , I did not finish Ironman Lake Placid in 2018.
StephanieDid you say seven minutes?
RodgerSeven minutes too late.
StephanieWow.
RodgerBut at that point it was so close , Ironman didn't even realize it during the race .
StephanieRight.
RodgerAnd, and they just let me go on and, and I competed as though I , I completed the race and , and made all the cutoffs. And it wasn't until very late that night, the next morning until it was apparent what had happened.
EdAnd so I guess you , you kind of felt you probably had that seven and a half minutes in you if you had known what you needed to do
RodgerAll the time. That comes back to me if only I had known <laugh> .
EdAbsolutely. So, so, but the , again, the story doesn't end there. So , uh, you know, what , what's kind of the next step? Obviously you're getting better and better and better, you know, and obviously you're enjoying what you're doing. So, you know, what , what was the next step for you?
RodgerWell, I , I saw that I was doing well. I saw that , um, if I keep going along the track, the path that I was setting for myself, I was gonna continue to improve. And I , I knew it just takes years to get your , your , your body and your , your mental thinking and adjustment to compete in an Ironman race. And , um, I , I saw I was heading in that direction, but there was room for improvement. So in 2019, the North American hand cycle qualifying for the Kona Ironman World Championship was in Lubbock, Texas. And there's only four slots for the hand cyclist in Kona. There's actually, now , now there's a few other, you know, just basically charitable slots and things like that. But those persons that compete are not eligible for awards or anything. The only four qualifying hand cycles are eligible for awards after the Ironman race, if you finish. So I went down to Lubbock in 2019 and that was actually more pressure than Kona cause I had to win that race. So I won that race and I got a slot to the 2019 Ironman in Kona in October that year.
EdAnd you got that , uh, that experience in kind of under the wire with, with what's happened since then, you know, So that was a amazing that you got to have that experience. So you go to Kona, you know, and, and obviously that's a mecca for triathletes. I mean every, every triathlete sort of dreams of being able to compete there. And then you also, you know, you wanna finish, you want to do well, how do you, how do you go to a big race like that and know kind of how to pace yourself so you're not, you know, you're not trying too hard at the beginning. Cause I know that with triathlon, you know, that experience counts. And by that point you had some experience.
RodgerWell, it , it's hard from a , a hand cycle standpoint versus a regular competitor standpoint. You have to use your arms for the swim. Of course you use your arms for the bike and the running portion. And , and so if you're a regular athlete , you know , you'd be using basically your , and then your , your legs for the cycling and then the running portion. So we have to be very, we have to focus our training in swimming on making sure that we're in very good shape. Cause we don't wanna feel as though we're tired when we first start the bike. Especially when the bike at , at Kona on a hand cycle if you have a good race, is about seven hours. And that comes after a one and a half hour swim. So when you're using your upper body, we focus on, on getting swim very strong so that we're not tired when we get out on the bike. And then when you get on the bike, you have to remember, watch your time. Cause you have a cumulative that 10 and a half hours to , to finish the swim bike portion. There's actually a swim cutoff too that's two hours and 20 minutes. But that one isn't nearly as difficult for hand cyclists as a cumulative 10 and a half hour swim bike cutoff is so that that's what you're watching. You wanna focus on your swimming, you wanna focus on your bike and, and keep your eyes sighted so that that 10 and a half hour cutoff doesn't get ahead of you, in which case you won't be able to finish your race.
StephanieSo how does, how do you adjust for weather factors? Because I'm, I mean, I'm not a triathlete by any stretch of the imagination.
EdMe either.
StephanieBarely an athlete, Roger. So you're not <laugh> I don't, I don't really not able to comment on that, but I'm just wondering like how weather affects your training, because I'm sure, you know, training here in the mid-Atlantic states is a lot different than going to a competition in Lubbock, Texas or Kona. Did the weather when you're competing affect the way you train at all? Or how do you make adjustments for that? I'm just curious. I thought, I'm familiar with Texas weather and I'm thinking, man, that that must be a , a challenge.
RodgerTexas weather is very low humidity. It's hot, but very low humidity. And Kona weather is very high humidity. That's hot and high humidity. Plus at Kona , you're actually out there much later in the day. So oftentimes when you're biking or running, the roads are hot, the streets are warm. Also, when you're in Kona, they have the lava fields and they just radiate heat . It's , it's very , it's just hot all around . Uh , road temperature is around 120 to 140 degrees are not unheard of. The , the good side, the plus side about living in Pennsylvania or Berks County is the weather we've had the last few weeks, the hot, it's very similar to Kona. So if you , if you can push yourself to go out and train in that, which is what we do actually very good training for Kona.
StephanieYeah.
RodgerWe have very hot, humid, sweltering summers here in Pennsylvania. And that , that's a lot like what they have all year round in Kona.
EdI, I guess it , that might be the next tourist attraction here is come and train for Kona. It's like the perfect weather for, you know, if you wanna ever go to the Ironman World Championships. We've got the, we've got the training venue for you here. Is the nutrition and the , and the hydration like similar to, you know, to other triathletes or is it different? Like how do you sort of manage that part?
RodgerNo , you , you try to , um, drink about one bottle, one water bottle, bicycle, water bottle water per hour or so. As far as nutrition goes, I rely a lot on Cliff bars, but every athlete's a little different. They also make like gel packs and um, you know, cliff cubes, they , they're , they're actually like a hard jelly type thing. Those are pretty nice. Uh , you can put them in your mouth and they just kind of dissolve an anything that, that you can really , um, train with, you know, get your stomach to tolerate. Uh , even Gatorade if , if you can drink a lot of Gatorade , uh, that has electrolytes and carbohydrates in it. I , I know people that have got through the race, which is , um, drinking a lot of Gatorade. Again, it's training you , you know, we , we practice nutrition and hydration when we're out there training. It's not like you can just go into that race and and say to yourself, Well I'm gonna eat , uh, so many calories per hour and expect your stomach's not gonna revolt. Cause it will, and and not only that, but , but you know , you could have bowel issues and all those kinda things that would happen. So yeah , that's what we train for.
StephanieRoger, what would you say to an athlete that's just starting out or is interested in going to a level such as becoming a triathlete that has mobility challenges or as a person with a disability and are thinking of this a physical fitness and training in a competition like this as a barrier, or they might not be able to compete. What would you say to them ?
RodgerI would advise them to get very strong, get a strong swimming background. That's why a lot more people don't do triathlons. It's basically because they swim and they stick to duathlons, which are bike run competitions. A lot of people just don't feel comfortable as comfortable in the water. Plus when you get into , um, what's oftentimes a , a mass start, a pack start in the water, that , that can even be scarier for them. And so I would recommend to anybody that wants to start in triathlon, either have a strong swimming background or gain a strong swimming background and then, you know , practice on the bike, practice on the run, actually sprint distance and Olympic distance triathlons. Sprint is usually very short, maybe a 500 yard swim with a , um, 10 mile bike or a three or six mile run. And an Olympic distance is a 1.2 mile swim with a , uh, 26 mile bike and a 10K run, which is about 6.2 miles. Those are, are doable. They're not impossible for paraplegics or spinal cord injury athletes. But again, you , you want to , you know, be confident in yourself to get through the, the water and then practice your biking, practice your running . And I , I think a lot of , um, hand cyclists or paraplegic athletes , uh, would find success with triathlons.
EdHow about having, having access to the equipment, because I know you mentioned Chris Kaag, I know he's been involved in getting a lot of people started in the sport. How would they sort of have the opportunity just to, you know, try the, try out the equipment that they would need or get started on, you know, having access to a hand cycle like you had , uh, the opportunity to try?
RodgerHonestly , uh, I know anybody, and I know a lot of other hand cyclists, triathletes, paraplegics that know of others. It's a fairly friendly community. And I know I've let a lot of persons try my hand cycle. And , um, I , I know other triathletes, paraplegic triathletes have done that. Chris Kaag he's a good resource if you're in Berks County area and need adaptive equipment. I , I guess the , the trick would be to, you know, reach out to somebody and get to know the , the persons in the handicapped triathlete community.
StephanieI think that's part of what Chris does is so unique and that there's no excuses, right? If you want to, no matter what your ability, if you want to be or remain active, there's a way to do it. And there's, there's an , an enormous amount of adaptive equipment that's available. And I think you're exactly right, Roger. It's being in that community and knowing what resources to tap into
RodgerThe , the thing you have to remember is the higher up your injury, typically the higher up your injury, your spinal cord injury, the more deficit or, or the more neurological deficit you're gonna have or more neurological issues that you're going to have. And so the other thing is, keep in mind practice. If you've been at it a number of years, <laugh> Ben Hogan said, the more I practice the luckier I get, you know, I , I wish other spinal cord injury , uh, persons wouldn't be scared away because their deficit might be greater than mine or Chris Kaag's, or they might not have access to the same equipment that I do or Chris Kaag has, or that they, they might be afraid of, of practicing and , and things like that. You know, I I just like to reach out to them and say, if they , if they do have the desire to compete or something, you know , please touch base with me or Chris Kaag or , um, any other person in the community, the , the paraplegic community , uh, who might be involved with triathlons. And I , I think they'd have a friendly reception.
StephanieAbsolutely. I think that's what makes it so important for organizations like ours, which is a center for Independent Living to make those connections in the disability community with other nonprofits or other organizations that are doing the same kind of work. And we're basically, you know, able to connect people. We may not provide the equipment, but we can certainly make those connections. And the bigger the community is, the more opportunity there are for people with disabilities to get access to that kind of stuff, to keep them active.
RodgerI got to know a number of your group. Many, many years ago at Aquabilities in Birdsboro. There used to be a group that swam there, I think Wednesday and Friday afternoons. And , uh, right after my injury, I , I went there for years to do water aquatics and , and , and things like that. So I'm , I'm somewhat familiar with your group.
StephanieYeah, we have a nice history with Aquabilities. I'm not even sure if that's in...
EdI think it , uh, closed down now. I would just do a little bit of research on it . I , we did do a , uh, actually did a , a collaboration event with Chris in June, actually, where he brought hand cycles out. We were out there sharing information. So we're always looking for opportunities to, to collaborate and use our platform as a way to connect people. So we're , we're looking for ways to do that, and we're more than happy to , uh, to make sure that you're part of those connections. Uh , that's great that you're willing to do that.
RodgerThanks.
EdSo , uh, you know, obviously with, with Covid , we all know that it's really put a a damper on a lot of athletics recently, and I know triathlons haven't been held until, you know, fairly recently, again, starting back up, I know they had the , uh, Ironman World Championships from last year, I believe was actually in Utah, and that they're planning to sort of get things ramped up again. So do you, do you have anything in your , uh, future plans as far as getting back out and competing again?
RodgerI do. I , I'm the , um, actual Kona Ironman World Championship for 2022 is planned to be held in Kona this year, in October. And , um, I qualified for that last year.
EdOh, congratulations.
StephanieNice.
RodgerAnd then, because last year's October 2021 Kona Race was canceled, then I got deferred to 2022 . But they're gonna actually race on two days in Kona this year because of all the events that were qualified and rescheduled in 2020 and 2021 . There's just too many athletes to accommodate in one day. So they're gonna have a Kona , basically the women and the , uh, hand cyclist on Thursday and then the men on Saturday.
EdSo where are you kind of in your , in your training process for that now? Kind of what , what stage are you at? How do you sort of ramp up for something like that and, and plan things out?
RodgerThe training intensity becomes much higher. And the endurance, which , which is basically the time you spend out on the bike and spend running and so forth, the distance you're covering the pool, they're all increasing. And, and so this past weekend I did about a 60 mile ride. Two weekends ago I did a 95 mile wide . Now this weekend coming up again, I'll probably do a , a 90 , a hundred mile ride the length of time and the yardage I do in the pool is increasing along with the intensity and the length of time I spend in my push chair , as well as the , the intensity, the workouts , all that increases.
EdSo we're gonna be able to root for you. Do you know if that event is going to be televised or , or , or streamed somewhere that we could actually watch it?
RodgerIt , it is on TV live. I'm not sure how long. Each day, Thursday and Saturday , uh, Kona is six hours behind us and the race starts at 6:30. So I think we'd be about 12:30 here when you could tune into it. What they typically do is film it, and then they have it on a Saturday afternoon, sometime in December or something like that. But when they've had a chance to compile all the , the different video footage that they've accumulated, and that's typically a one or two hour presentation, but that's a couple months later. There is an Ironman tracker that you can get. It's an app for your phone that will enable you to the day of the race. You would go into the Ironman tracker, type in Kona, and then type in the participants last name. And you can actually, on your phone, it would tell you, you know, what checkpoints and, and how they're doing in the race and so forth. It's a pretty cool app.
StephanieThat is cool. I never, I didn't realize something like that existed. So it's able to attract like your real time progress in the competition?
RodgerRight. Everybody has a chip that they get from Ironman that they wear on their ankle during the race, and that that chip has GPS capabilities. And so you can actually see right, where you're athlete, anybody you might wanna follow , and you can follow multiple athletes at the same time, you can see where they are in the race course.
StephanieThat's really cool. I , I love how technology advances and allows, you know, us to follow something like that, even that far away and live in real time . I think that's really cool. We'll probably , we'll, you know, Ed, I think you're gonna have to download that app and...
EdYeah, absolutely.
StephanieFollow Roger's progress.
EdYeah, I feel like I , I feel like it kind of makes us participants in the story in a way, which is kind of neat.
RodgerYeah , last year, last fall, there's an Ironman race in , uh, Cambridge every September. And again, Kevin Moore was competing last fall and I went down to watch him . And so when I got there, it was about three or four hours after the race had started, I just pulled up the Ironman tracker I could see right where he was on the course . And so I was able , able to get myself out there and , and , um, you know , follow him .
StephanieOh, that's great. So Lake Placid , are you revisiting that next year to, to get revenge for your seven minutes?
RodgerI don't know. I , I haven't thought that far ahead yet. <laugh> , I I'm so focused on Kona right now.
StephanieRight.
RodgerI , I don't know what my schedule will be next year at this moment. I , I'm sure I'll sign up for some races, but offhand I just don't know exactly which ones.
EdIt , it's a pretty inspiring place though. I've been to Lake Placid actually when I was working as a sports writer, and it's pretty amazing to see, you know, the , the venues for all those great athletic performances that , uh, that I remember, you know, from when I was younger. It's a pretty, it's a pretty neat place.
RodgerI did do a race in June in Luxembourg, and what was really cool about this race, it was a half Ironman. Um , not a full Ironman , 70.2 miles, but you got to swim in Germany, bike in France, and run in Luxembourg all in one race.
EdI was gonna say, they , they probably can't actually hold a full length triathlon in Luxembourg.
RodgerYeah . You know, over in Europe, you really don't know when you change countries may , maybe on the major highways you do, like welcome to France or something like that, but when you're on these , these , these s in a bike race, you really don't know when you go from one country into the next <laugh> .
EdAnd I , I know other, other athletes I I've spoken with have said that the travel is one of the interesting things about, you know, being involved in sports. So is that something about it that you enjoy or are you so focused on, you know, your performance that you're, you're kind of not able to to take that all in?
RodgerNo, I , I Luxembourg I was interested in, because it , it was the three countries, so that that was kind a , a destination race that I , I wanted to do for years. Other races like Kona , that , that there I'll be more focused on my performance.
EdWell, I, I'm fascinated by your story. I really appreciate you sharing it. I , I've had a great time getting to know you. I did a little bit of reading ahead of time and you were actually written in up in Bicycling Magazine, which is a pretty neat thing too. So, you know, what , what was that experience like?
RodgerYeah, that, that, the Bicycling Magazine interview was a good one. The trouble with that was it took place in a very cold December day. It was cloudy and overcast. We had snow flurries and , and I just had a tough time. They wanted to get some , uh, video, but it , it was a good interview other than the , the snow flurries and the cold, cold temperature. I think that was 2018. It might , I think it was really , it was a very cold day in mid-December 2018 .
EdI , I think that sounds right, if I remember correctly. Well, I, I really appreciated getting the , the chance to chat with you. And I don't have any more questions. I don't know if Stephanie has any more Shippensburg related questions or comments that you'd like to make to kind of bring things full circle.
StephanieI just appreciate the reminiscing through. I I , I picture it in my mind when you were talking at the beginning of the podcast about running past Seavers apartments and through College Park apartments, all very familiar places for me, even though I wasn't there at the same time you were from 1990 to 95, I traveled those same paths and it was a nice walk down memory lane. So I thank you for that. And it's been a , a pleasure talking to you about your journey and adaptive racing and your, your goals. And I think it's so cool to get to experience these competitions in, in the way that you describe them, especially, you know, I , I love the , the , the three country one I just think that's amazing. That is a destination race for sure. And best of luck to you, Roger, and your , and your future goals and your competitions in Kona this October.
EdYep, we'll, we'll be tracking you.
RodgerOh , thank you Stephanie.
StephanieYeah, thank you. Is there anything you'd like to, to leave us with before we sign off?
RodgerNo, no . I , I can't think of anything off hand . Thank you for taking the time to interview me.
StephanieAbsolutely. Thank you so much. It was , it was a pleasure.
EdYep . It was definitely our, our privilege.
RodgerThank you .
StephanieAll right . Take care, Rodger.
RodgerTake care. Bye.
StephanieBye .
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