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Giving Up Was Never an Option....

Tuesday, 03 January 2012 02:20

ED. - Minneapolis triathlete Lois Nilson is a very private person and is sure to be totally mortified when she learns that MTN has posted this wonderful 2009 article about her. This inspiring story was brought to us on the condition of anonymity by one of Lois' dearest friends. We won't divulge his name, but will say only that it rhymes with "Lerb Hefler."

'I'm not ending it like that'

By BILL BULEY

Staff writer / CDAPress

Woman falls, recovers to be last official finisher

COEUR d'ALENE -- The final minutes and seconds were ticking away as Lois Nilson ran down Sherman Avenue.

Well, tried to run. She was hobbling, hunched over to her right and in tears when she emerged from the darkness, the finish line in sight....

The Minneapolis, Minn., woman had nearly 3 minutes to make it by midnight to be an Ironman. She was almost there, 50 yards to go, the crowd starting to roar as the Ford Ironman Coeur d'Alene clock clicked to its end Sunday night.

Then, she fell.

More like crumpled and crashed to the ground on her back, agony etched on her face as she laid there, stunned and crying.

"My legs just gave out," she said. "I thought, 'No, I'm not ending it like that.'"

So, with a little help from Ironman staff, with the crowd urging her to rise, she stood. And she ran. Slow, torturous steps, but with every step, the crowd screamed, thundered, clapped and cheered.

She would make it.

The 52-year-old stumbled and fell hard to her knees as she finished, the final to do so on this cold, rainy, windy day. The clock read 16 hours, 58 minutes, 14 seconds.

"Lois Nilson, you are an Ironman!" boomed Mike Reilly, the Voice of Ironman.

A few minutes later, sitting in a chair and recovering from a daylong journey marked by pain, anguish and determination, Nilson calmly sipped water and recounted her fourth career Ironman.

"I just knew I had to keep running to make it and I really wanted to make it," she smiled. "I just kind of willed myself to keep going."

Her day started well, with a swim in choppy waters in 1 hour, 29 minutes, then the 112-mile bike ride in 8:17.

"It got tough out there," she said. "I just kept pedaling away."

Last came the 26.2-mile run, when darkness descended, the temperature dropped into the 40s, the raindrops fell and the wind wouldn't quit, either.

"I couldn't run as much as I wanted to run. I just got so cold. And I just couldn't warm up," Nilson said.

At mile 23, with three to go and her legs shaking, she knew she was in a battle to finish by midnight. But giving up was never an option.

"I'm going to finish even if I didn't make the cutoff," she said. "I was going to do the whole thing, that's what I came out here to do."

She credited volunteers with running along with her for short distances, offering encouragement and telling her how much time and how many miles she had left.

You can do it, they told her.

"They were wonderful, I didn't have a chance to thank them. They got me through," Nilson.

When she made the final turn onto Sherman at Seventh Street and could see the lights of the finish in the distance, she knew she had a shot.

"I couldn't catch my breath," she said.

After 6 hours, 45 minutes and 24 seconds of running through the streets of Coeur d'Alene, the crowd's ovation brought her home.

"That was very nice," she said.

Turns out, she was the last of 2,032 who made it -- with a minute and 46 seconds to spare.

"I knew it was so close," she laughed.

While she admitted this was the toughest of her four Ironmans, Nilson wouldn't rule out a return to the Lake City.

"I don't know," she said with a sigh. "I'm ready to take some time off."

Well deserved.

ED. Lois will also be featured in a "Going Off Course" post on Thursday.