Sept. 11 continues to connect us.
Melissa Merson was supposed to be at Battery Park across from the World Trade Towers that morning. Instead, she went to a doctor’s appointment. The diagnosis? Breast cancer.
That day eventually led Army Maj. David Rozelle to Iraq where he would lose his right ankle to an anti-tank mine.
The Washingtonians are together in Hawaii for Saturday’s Ford Ironman World Championships. Two survivors in a race that will require a 2.4-mile swim, 26.1-mile run and 112-mile bike ride against the world’s best triathletes.
Maybe you’ve seen Merson run and bike aside rush-hour traffic from Arlington to Capitol Hill, where she works for the congressional budget office. Perhaps you’ve met Rozelle at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he mentors other amputees while overseeing construction of a new rehab center.
When your children talk of heroes playing for the Redskins or Wizards, tell them of everyday people doing extraordinary things, those who choose to live amid the worse of circumstances. Those whose victories are measured in steps and sun rises.
Merson’s chances of survival now five years later weren’t great,not with 10 positive lymph nodes requiring a double mastectomy and eight rounds of chemotherapy. Yet, she didn’t miss a day of work and competed in a triathlon 10 weeks after her final treatment. Now Merson will dodge lava fields bordering the bike segment in Kailua-Kona.
“I’m alive,” she said. “If I’m blown off into the lava fields, I’ll still be alive and it’s a great day because I’m experiencing it.”
Rozelle’s rehab is equally impressive. Eighteen months after being injured in April 2003, Rozelle returned to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment to serve the final four months of his tour.
“I needed to heal; that I was the same man,” he said. “It was part of my rehab. It was very important for me and not wonder for the rest of my life if I could go back.”
Rozelle runs with a spring that looks like a ‘J’. He has broken one prosthetic foot while training, but nothing deters Rozelle from showing fellow amputees anything is possible.
“I get freakish looks from others who can’t believe I passed them,” Rozelle said. “They don’t understand I’ve been training as hard as they have been. They see the amputees on front pages of the papers and news outlets that only show them injured. This is my chance to show America we can come back stronger.”
Rozelle, 34, is not a typical triathlete at 6-foot, 205 pounds. Too big and too old compared to many of the 200 competitors. But for someone who has endured 145-degree temperatures in Kuwait, Hawaii’s windy bike course and Pacific waves are nothing. The marathon run will be the grind, though.
“I’m looking least forward to that,” he said. “Hawaii’s beautiful waters and sand and fish beneath me, and the biking even though it will be windy, is still gorgeous. But you can be in heaven and it would be tough to run a marathon.”
Merson, 53, figures this is her final triathlete competition. A new medication scheduled next year to thwart cancer’s return will make it harder on her joints to handle extreme distances. But for the daughter of Leo Merson, who was part of the 1936 Olympics boycott by the basketball team, nothing is insurmountable.
“Whenever I tell my mom about a race, she asks ‘What are you trying to prove?’ ” Merson said. “I tell her I’m not training for an event as I am for life. I’m training for a strong body to handle whatever life throws at me. It’s had an enormous impact on my long-term survival.”
Rick Snider has covered local sports for 28 years. Contact him at [email protected].
