Cute story from my first Ironman

I was almost done with my second of three laps of the run course in April 2007. I had just gone through an aid station and my knee was starting to hurt a little bit.

I had been carrying a knee brace with me so I stopped to put it on. I was sitting for a second when a girl came limping/hopping up and sat down on the wall across the running path.

We shared a couple pleasantries and more than a couple not so pleasant comments about how tough the day was. I think she was on her first lap and I was about to reassure her that the day was going to get better when a volunteer came over to her.

He asked if she needed any help. She popped her leg (which turned out to be prosthetic) off just below the knee and handed it to the volunteer. "Do you have some water that you can rinse this off with? There's some sand in there and it's starting to irritate the stump."

I wished the both of them well and hobbled off for my final 8 miles.