A true Everyday Hero; Chatham triathlete to take part in Ironman competition in New York

MARK MALONE
Sports - Saturday, July 21, 2007 @ 09:00

Near dusk Sunday, if all goes well, an exhausted Ryan Van Praet will approach the finish line at the Ironman Lake Placid Triathlon.

He won't raise his arms to celebrate those final few steps.

Instead, he'll lie on the ground and roll across the line, like a log tumbling down a hill.

Then, he hopes, curious spectators will ask him why.

The 27-year-old from Chatham will tell them about Jon (Blazeman) Blais, who started the log-roll tradition.

He'll tell them how Blais did the 2005 Ironman World Championship in Hawaii after being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease.

He'll tell them how Blais was in a wheelchair by 2006 and died two months ago.

And he'll them why raising awareness about ALS is so close to his own heart.

Van Praet's father, Adelard, was also diagnosed with ALS in 2005.

"My father gave me every opportunity to do anything I ever wanted," Van Praet said. "He let me try, and his disease is killing him. The least I can do is something to thank him."

Van Praet isn't just thanking his 55-year-old father. He's also helping others with the fatal disease.

A bike spinathon in February brought in $8,000 for the Blazeman Foundation.

The ALS Society of Essex County will benefit from the first Stubborn Buffalo eight-mile run Sept.
9 at Rondeau Provincial Park.

Some people have asked Van Praet why he raises money for ALS. Wouldn't he want to do something for his own disease?

He is, after all, going blind.

"One disease kind of sucks and one kills," he said. "I think the one that kills you is more important on the priority list."

Van Praet learned when he was four or five that he has retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative retinal disease. He's legally blind.

He's never been able to see in the dark or drive a car.

Over the past four years, his depth perception has worsened and reading has become more difficult.

He doesn't feel sorry for himself, though.

"My disease doesn't kill me," he said. "It sucks. I'm 27 and I've had it forever. But that's the way it is."

Van Praet was scheduled to receive the Ford Everyday Hero Award at a ceremony Friday night in Lake Placid, N.Y.

The award is given at each Ironman event to one competitor for contributions to a charity.

He'll also wear No. 179 on Sunday, the number worn by Blais at his final race. It's reserved at each Ironman for someone with an inspirational story.

The story will hit the small screen this fall.

Van Praet and his family sat down last week with Greg McFadden, executive producer of Barrie-based Ironworks Productions. Parts of their interviews will be included in a TV show on the Lake Placid Triathlon.

"So much of the Ironman is about the human drama," McFadden said.

The program will air this fall on the Versus cable channel in the United States, but there are no plans to show it in Canada, he said. Sunday's race starts at 7 a.m. Triathletes must swim 2.4 miles (3.8 kilometres), bicycle 112 miles (180 km) and run 26.2 miles (42.2 km) by midnight to officially finish.

Van Praet is there with three other Chatham triathletes. Janet Bowls, his mother-in-law. Gavin Stuart, a groomsman at his wedding. And Tony Reed, his wedding's emcee.

His personal-best time, from his Ironman debut in 2004, is 11:57:45 hours.

Van Praet hopes to finish well before midnight. Once darkness falls, he won't be able to see anything.

If he's still running at night, race officials have given permission for his wife, Mindy Bowls, to guide him the rest of the way.

This will be Van Praet's fourth Ironman triathlon. He did the Canada Ironman in Penticton, B.C., last year on his honeymoon.

"Every one could be your last one and you're thankful to do every one," said Van Praet, who works in cardiac rehabilitation at the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance. "I can't say, 'Oh, I can't finish it and I'll come back next year to do it.'"

His vertical field of vision is shrinking. Avoiding potholes and bumps in the road is getting harder.

"I've had a few crashes that kind of woke me up," he said.

He'll put away the bike when riding isn't safe for him or the other triathletes.

Van Praet used to be active in several sports. He played football at Chatham Collegiate Institute and loved playing hockey.

His parents refused to coddle him. He was as busy as any other boy. If he fell, he learned to pick himself up.

"We let him try whatever he wanted to do," said his mother, Joanne. Now she worries about him. So does his father.

Adelard Van Praet can't talk. He can move only his head, barely, and sometimes a thumb. He breathes with help from a machine.

"He's not thinking about himself," Ryan Van Praet said. "He's worried I'm going to get hurt."

Ryan met Jon Blais a month before his death and promised to keep working for ALS awareness.

The disease has no known cause and no cure. It makes nerve cells rapidly degenerate and paralyzes muscles.

"It's pretty cruel," Van Praet said. "It's like every day somebody flips a switch and something else on your body stops working."

He plans to hold the spinathon and Rondeau run annually. He knows next year's run could be a memorial to his father.

http://www.chathamdailynews.ca/webap...ports&classif=