Diablo Fit: From Accident to Alcatraz

Dublin resident Andy May will compete in the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon this Sunday nine years after having his left leg amputated.

Dublin resident and challenged athlete Andy May has competed in all types of athletic events. He mountain bikes, he trail runs, he swims, and sometimes he does combinations.

Take this Sunday’s Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon, with its nine miles of off-road running, 18 miles of cycling, and of course, the race's traditionally frigid 1.5-mile swim across the bay. It will be May’s second time competing in the prestigious event, unassisted and all on one leg. It’s a feat he didn’t know would ever be possible nine years ago in the winter of 2000.

December 16, 2000. It started as a typical Saturday for then 27-year-old May. Christmas was only nine days away and he was returning home on his motorcycle from his favorite bicycle shop, Danville’s California Peddler.

“I was just going through an intersection in Danville and a red-light runner struck me right there at the intersection of Sycamore, right there on the boulevard,” says May recalling the compact car that came charging through the intersection.

The dizzying episode left May’s left leg completely shattered below the knee. Ambulance crews rushed him to John Muir Hospital as fast as they could but by the time he fell asleep that night his leg had been amputated.

At the time, May had been a sponsored mountain biker and cyclocross racer deeply involved within the Bay Area’s cycling community. The accident had left him devastated and bewildered. He wondered whether or not he’d ever be able to get back on his bike again. Yet, to him and his family’s surprise, while he was still trying to process what had just happened to him, his sponsors were already at work with a plan to get him back into action.

“They literally called me at the hospital when I was still on a morphine drip!” recalls May. His sponsor Fox Racing Shocks, a suspension manufacturer based in Watsonville, had called prosthetics company Ohio Willow Wood to begin the construction of May’s new leg. That same week of the accident they scheduled May and his wife Jennifer to be flown out to Mt. Sterling, Ohio where he would be fitted for a new leg. Two weeks later May found himself sitting in a small room with his wife Jennifer and a brand new prosthetic limb.

“Putting on the leg for the first time, it was pretty emotional as you can imagine,” says May. “I remember my prosthetist who made the leg for me leaving the room because both of us were just kinda celebrating in our own way. We both had tears in our eyes and at that moment I knew that with hard work and concentration I’d get back to what I wanted to do again.”

But it wasn’t an easy task. First he had to relearn how to walk, which took him about three months, then to ride which took him another three months and then to get back into race shape. All told, it took him about two years of non-stop hard work.

During this time of struggle and doubt his family, friends, and his wife Jennifer were instrumental to his recovery, encouraging him to keep pushing forward. May says that having them behind him and having a specific focus to do what he loved again is what helped him to cope with his new circumstances.

Since his accident, May has competed in many different mountain bike and road races and in the last few years had added off-road triathlons to his repertoire such as the Xterra triathlon series, where he recently qualified to compete in their Extera World Championships in Maui. Looking back, May says that he see’s now that his disability has allowed him to realize abilities he never would have achieved otherwise.

“To be honest, I feel like I’m a stronger racer now than I ever was before,” May says. "It’s made me tougher and I think mentally, I’m three times as strong as I was before.”

His times up to Mt. Diablo’s summit back up that statement. In his early twenties, before the accident, May would clock in at about 53 minutes. Now at age 36 he does it in 57 minutes. Only four minutes slower.

“When I’m racing I forget that I’m an amputee. It’s just my competitive nature. And if I see someone in front of me I’ll chase them down. It doesn’t matter who it is.”

This Sunday May hopes to boost his fitness to the next level as he tackles Alcatraz’s treacherous currents and roaming road course. For more information on the race visit escapefromalcatraztriathlon.com/
 

 

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