- Alright we are very fortunate to have Tim Don,
four time ITU world champion, three time Olympian
and just general all-around good guy
and a good friend of mine who this year
had a real pivotal season in his life.
Because last year, unfortunately, Tim had
a really really unfortunate accident
three days out from Ironman Hawaii.
In the shape of your life, fair to say?
- [Tim] Definitely.
- But in shape to go to race,
and perform like he'd hoped to do.
But unfortunately got hit by a truck
and the accident meant that Tim, long story short,
had to wear a halo which was four bolts in the skull?
- [Tim] Four bolts, yep.
- [Fraiser] And you had that on from October
when you had the accident through to January.
- Mid-January.
- [Fraiser] So that three and a half month period?
- Three months and one day.
- [Fraiser] Not counting.
- Not counting.
(laughter)
- So what we wanna talk about today is the fact
that once that came off, what did life entail for you?
- Well I thought it was brilliant.
(laughter)
No I mean literally it was like (sigh),
but once it came off I always thought I'm ready to go.
But the doctor did warn me it would be like
my head would be like a bowling ball
supported by a piece of spaghetti.
And it literally was that, I still had to wear
what's called an Aspen collar which is quite
an aggressive neck brace for about six more weeks
as I built up strength in my neck.
But also the halo came down to my belly button
and so from my belly button upwards, I could not move.
So it's literally if you can imagine
flying economy class in the middle seat
for three months without moving a muscle.
And I'm talking not even to go
to the loo, absolutely nothing.
And I thought, yeah once it's off I'll be ready to go.
I'd done some training with the halo on.
I'd been in the turbo trainer, I'd been in the gym
trying to move my lower body, my hips, strengthen my calves.
Yeah the realisation sunk in once it came off.
So yeah it was, I wouldn't say life-changing,
but it definitely affects every facet of your life.
It's not just I've torn my calf, I can't run, nevermind.
It had massive implications on my wife and my family.
Yeah I was lucky, people like Fraiser flew out to see me,
my physio, John Dennis from New Castle he flew out twice.
My sister flew out from Europe, my mom flew out.
My mom and my dad flew out then, my in-laws.
I think for the three months I had the halo on,
we had about five or six nights where it was just
Kelly, myself, and Matildo and Hugo.
The rest there was always someone with us, helping us out.
And yeah we couldn't have survived,
my wife especially, my gosh she's a saint.
- But we get it was a real team effort
to get through that period of wearing the halo obviously.
So then once the halo came off, as you said,
it wasnt' all shining lights and rosiness
because you had to rework out how to walk, live, and work
with your head as its weight and you coping with it.
Because the halo had done that
for the previous three months.
- Yeah I mean when the halo came off
I literally couldn't turn my head left, right, up, and down
and that wasnt' because of the break,
that was just 'cause I hadn't done it.
The muscles weakened, not that I'm a big fellow
but I've lost a lot of muscle mass in my chest, in my back.
Yeah I literally had to retrain the body how to move
in the upper body because from mid-thoracic up
those joints in your back which move in every movement
just hadn't moved for three months, literally.
It was like a plaster cast from here to here.
Yeah it was, training brought on a new meaning to me
because it wasn't about increasing your aerobic capacity
or VO2 max, going quicker for less energy.
It was about lifting a weight,
and being able to lift it above my head
and going across the body without falling over.
Yeah I mean when I first got in the water
I had an Aspen collar which is a very aggressive collar.
I had an aqua jogging belt and I was doing vertical kicking,
then I could go to old English backstroke,
kicking and backstroke like this.
And then once I got a bit of mobility, a bit of range
through physio and soft tissue massage work
yeah, I couldn't, I had to use a snorkel.
When things aren't going well they get magnified,
for me when I don't hit certain things,
you always think about your best.
So I'm thinking about Brazil,
I'm thinking about Chattanooga.
I'm thinking about the shape I was in before, Kona.
And then I'm going I can't run outside.
I can only run auto g for 30 seconds, the 30 seconds walk.
I can't swim without a snorkel,
and I can only manage 400 metres
and I can only ride on a turbo trainer on a road bike.
And the bike was I think a 56 so it was two sizes too big.
- [Fraiser] Just to give you the reach.
- 'cause I couldn't lean forward so yeah.
- But that's how you adapted and you did.
So it's like glass half full,
let's find a way to make it work.
- Absolutely.
- So obviously talking about races,
the last race that you hadn't been able to do
was the biggest one we can do which is Kona.
But you then seeded a thought with Boston Marathon.
- The opportunity came up and I,
we're athletes, I needed a goal.
I don't train for training sake.
I don't train so I look good, so I can hey look over.
You know I train to be the best I can be
and the best in the world and I needed those goals.
- We can see Kelly's point of view 'cause you'd never done
a stand-alone marathon - What're you saying Fraiser?
- You'd never done a stand-alone marathon
and then here you are, it was only January
and Boston's April the?
- Early, April 11 I think.
- [Fraiser] So you know you didn't have a lot of time.
- No I think I'd run outside for like
three and a half weeks before Boston.
- Which if anybody's done a marathon out there,
you definitely want a little bit more.
- [Tim] No don't do that at home.
- [Frasier] Your standard 16 week plan went out the window.
- For me, the finish line, it was the start line.
Because I knew if I could reach my goal in Boston
and run the time I wanted to then
I knew I would qualify for Kona
because if I could get through that physically and mentally
then physically I'm moving in the right direction
but regardless of the cold, but that was for me
was like I don't wanna be, oh Tim the guy in the halo,
well done you know you're on the start line, good on chap.
You know I wanna be oh sugar there's Tim, I gotta race him.
And for me that was a big thing
was getting to that finish line.
- And I remember messaging you good luck
and saying you know what's your goals
and you know you tentatively said
as long as I go under three I'm gonna be happy,
but anything I would be and I believed you.
Took that at face value and I--
- Did you think I could do it?
- Yeah I downloaded the tracker,
and I was like I wanted to see where Tim's going
and it was a brilliant tracker by the way.
So every sort of three, four, five miles
that they had the points you could see
that Tim was on way under three hour marathon pace.
And you know, during the race you felt good, right?
- Yeah no, I felt good, I think Boston though,
if anyone knows marathons, it's not, you can't do,
not that I was gonna do a world record,
but it's not an official world record
'cause it is a net down hill especially the first half.
But yeah I was always on pace for well under 2:50.
- [Fraiser] So Tim came in at 2:49:50.
- [Tim] 2:49, I think it was 42, 43.
- [Fraiser] Oh right, you definitely didn't just
get under three, you got under 2:50.
- [Tim] Yeah.
(upbeat music)
I got third in Chattanooga, the world champ
so I had a lot of points but I needed to do
at least an Ironman and a 70.3 to qualify for Kona.
I knew I was up against time so it was
a window of about three races and Costa Rica,
I'll be honest, not many people
fly to Cost Rica as a professional.
It's quite awkward to get to so it's gonna be
a slightly weaker field plus it was hot and humid.
So it's not about pure speed, it's about
racing smart, hydration, preparing correctly.
So I really focused on those things,
preparing for the heat, working on my pacing
and yeah again, it would be a good indication
going through to Kona if I had a good race in hot and humid.
And it was probably the second hottest
race I've ever done in my life.
- [Fraiser] Really and that's saying a lot
because you've done some hot races.
But you know long story short, Tim won the race, brilliant
comeback I mean you must've been delighted, rightly so.
- Oh, disbelief (laughs)
- Yeah I bet, because if somebody
told you before, you know it's a small field
but there were still some good athletes there.
So Tim takes this win from Olympians
who were racing there with him.
And as you said, you had good points
from previous world 70.3 champs
so that took some pressure off 'cause you then got
good points for winning that half
which then left you with an arma
'cause you have to validate and do another arma
in distance to get back to corner
which was the whole goal of the season, right?
- I knew there were, I think,
three Ironman we were considering.
There was Austria, Hamburg, and Mont-Tremblant
and I live in America so Mont-Tremblant was the obvious one.
But looking at the profiles of the courses,
Hamburg definitely suited me the best
'cause it was a good swim, a fast swim.
We'll go onto that in a minute.
The bike is very fast so the more aerodynamic you are,
the more efficient you are, the better you are at pacing,
the more you have an advantage.
So yeah I settled on Hamburg and I've raced there before.
I've had great races with the ITU.
There's like four million people come out and watch it.
It's a good vibe, so we picked Hamburg.
- And then they cut the swim.
- Then they did cut the swim and also
getting ready for a 70.3, it's a lot simpler.
But leading up to Hamburg, I had to up the volume
because I had to do well, I had to get a top four.
I couldn't just validate, so--
- [Fraiser] And Hamburg had a good
quality field and you knew that.
- Well now I mean it had a podium
finisher in Kona who won the race.
I got there in 9th, yeah yeah.
- So obviously that wasn't what you needed.
And didn't get the, it's quite complicated,
but the points weren't there that you needed for Kona,
so then you had a decision to make.
Do I keep pushing for this dream or you know,
it was your goal that you had very publicly stated
that you were gonna get back to doing.
- Don't do that.
- So you know, you had to decide, do I go again?
Because there's only a certain amount of time
and you know Hamburg was in August.
There was only another month where you could
do another Ironman before they have a cutoff.
And then that's it, you'd have to wait till 2019.
So you obviously did, you waited for it,
but that can't have been easy 'cause you must have been,
you know you're not used to being injured.
You've been lucky with your career haven't you?
But you'd had this awful period to get through,
you'd got back to an Ironman,
but you were struggling with an injury.
- Yeah there was, I was always gonna try.
You know I'd rather fail than not try at all
so yeah it was Copenhagen was the Ironman I chose.
There was more chance of a swim there which was good.
We ran 44 minutes so that was all good.
And we came out of the swim with two other guys,
we dropped them in transition, we were gone.
And I was like yes it's the two of us,
we're gonna hammer the bike, flat course,
especially the first, it's two laps,
the first 40K is very flat and fast.
We got to about 10K, we'd opened up a minute lead
on the two guys who we got out of the water with
and about five minutes on everyone else.
He went around a corner, crashed, flatted,
and I'm thinking I'm on my own.
I do not have the strength or the willpower
to ride on my own so I'm riding solid
and I rode 3 hours, 38 minutes totally on my own.
And I had a bit of stomach issues
so I'd stopped in a field to relieve myself.
- Pro-tip.
- Yeah, don't do it on the side of the road.
Go in the field, climb the fence.
I got into the round, I felt good, I kept on pushing.
And I think it was about eight kilometres into the run,
my stomach started to go again.
I realised looking back, mind plays tricks.
I hadn't taken the nutrition, the hydration
I needed to on the bike because I had stomach issues.
And again I think it was 26K I was still in,
I think I was in about the third,
I think that this race I needed to finish seventh
and I was in third and I knew I was gonna
have to probably start walking.
And I was just like you know what, I just can't do it
and I said, I just stopped at an aid station
and the medics came over and goes do you want help.
And I said no no, and they said you know if
we help you then you're out of the race.
And I said no no no, I just need
and I just knew my stomach, I was cramping.
I looked at my sleeve and it was just like
caked in white salt which is not--
- [Frasier] It's never a good sign.
- Yeah it's not a good sign and it very rarely happens
'cause I'm very good on that side of stuff.
- [Frasier] So all of that's obviously
going through your mind, you're processing the fact
that really that's the Kona dream over.
- Yeah, I'm a planner, I love it.
I love planning my training, I know 2019,
every race where I'm gonna be all the way through.
And so kinda like I got home, I looked at races.
I said look I know I'm in good shape,
I just need to sort a few things out.
I'm gonna do a 70.3 in Shanghai.
I'm gonna do the one in, I think it was Santa Rosa.
- You were gonna get other shorter races locked in.
- Yes, and I was gonna try and make some money.
At the end of the day, you know I'm a professional athlete.
I haven't raced much because of various, from my neck.
So I said yep, and I went to bed
and I thought I'll swim tomorrow
'cause I don't feel too bad, I didn't finish the Ironman.
If I wake up I'm gonna go for a
swim with a squad in Loughborough.
So if I don't wake up, I get to lay in, whoa.
And I woke up had a coffee, I was looking at my phone,
you know as you do, Instagram, BBC News, CNN, no (laughs).
All the trifling websites and I got an email
from Ironman saying that someone had.
And I was like no no no, I'm not doing Kona,
I'm focused on this and it was a bit of a,
I wouldn't say anti-climax but the way it came about
I was a bit like oh did I earn that, did I or--
- Well you didn't get it that way you envisaged getting it.
- No and I knew--
- [Fraiser] Which is the way you'd only ever got.
- I said straight from the beginning,
if they offer me a charity spot,
there is no way I'm taking it.
If they had offered it me the day after I broke my neck
for the next year, 100% taking it.
But when I've tried, tried and failed
and someone says oh look we're gonna give you a handout.
That's not my cup of tea, but someone decided not to race.
- Rules are the rules, so the spot was yours to take.
It's just whether you wanted to take it.
- Yeah so I spoke to Kelly and Matt and Julie
and they said we're 100% behind you.
We think we can get you in good shape
and I said okay let's do it.
(seagulls squawking)
(upbeat music)
(crowd cheering)
So I wanted to finish for them.
I wanted to do them justice, everyone that supported me.
I know it sounds a bit weird, but
sponsors are more than sponsors.
They don't just pay us to use their products.
For me being in the sport 20 years, they're part of my life,
some on a daily basis believe it or not.
My coaches, you know people that visited me.
I owed it to everyone to finish and do what I was doing.
- [Fraiser] So you got down that finish line
on Leaky Drive and what did you feel like?
- Oh relief, like that I've done it.
That I can, to a degree, hopefully
put that chapter of my life,
not forget about it but put it behind me.
But also you know a bit of sadness
because what could've been the year before.
But then going this is it, next year it will be different.
I will be finishing this with these feelings
but I will be hopefully 30 minutes,
40 minutes - but there was that
part of you crossing the finish line going
that's me, done, never again 'cause we've all said that.
- Um no not for that race, there have been races
where I've crossed the line, definitely when I didn't
qualify for London Olympics I thought
I was gonna walk away from the sport.
But no, 'cause I know and I got honest coaches,
they're not, they believe that I can get back there.
So no when I crossed that line, I knew that
if I've done it under those circumstances,
god, my preparation can't be any worse, I'll tell you that.
- So that's that, you know line drawn in the sand.
And then 2019's a bit of change, isn't there?
So you've got something different,
you're gonna be working as a guide for para-athletes.
- Well yeah, I mean first of all we moved back.
I've been in America with my family.
My son's American, but he's got
a British passport, don't worry.
Yeah I moved back from American back to Loughborough,
started training with a Loughborough High
performance squad for my swimming.
Matt Buttrill, my cycling coach,
he lives just down 10K away, so I started riding with him.
Still working with Julie.
And someone sent me an email, this guy,
saying hey Tim, I got an email from British Triathlons
saying you know why don't you apply as a para guide
and I was like I never got that email,
but you know what I genuinely, independently,
I saw the post and I applied for it for myself.
So yeah I got short listed and selected
so I will be doing some guiding for Dave.
- [Fraiser] Do you think you'll be any good at it?
- I don't know, I've been on a tandem,
uh no well I like to talk as you can tell.
So it's a lot of communication,
but no I love the challenge, you know for me,
I love performance sports, I love seeing,
I love being part of the process,
and you know having met Dave three or four times,
he lives around the corner from me, I can see his--
- [Fraiser] And that's your, who you're guiding for?
- That's it, yeah that's the British guy,
that's the British athlete in V3 who I'll be
guiding for with two other athletes.
I think he's driven, he's focused, I'm the same.
And yeah I think it'll be exciting,
and it's challenging for both of us
and for the whole team, the dynamics are so different.
And I think I can offer a lot and I'm really excited.
- [Fraiser] And is there something about that?
I mean the way I see it from the outside looking in
is you know you entered your first Olympics at Sydney,
that's gonna be 19 years ago.
You know it's back tied to you,
I know it's slightly different, it's para racing,
but it's still in the ITU fold
and there's that caret of an Olympic games
in the para Olympic games so that kinda
full circle's kinda cool right?
- Yeah definitely.
- I know it's different.
- No, it's different but it's no less challenging,
and I think the standard is being raised.
The times are coming down, the competition,
it's not a forgone conclusion to make the Olympic games
as a para athlete, you know let alone podium or top 10.
- There's also the element of all of what
you know about the sport that you can pass on right?
- Absolutely, I mean not many people
get to go to multiple Olympic games,
multiple world championships and that kind of,
that experience, being 40 I've kind of been there done that,
but I still believe I can add value,
but I can be competitive, I can still--
- And that's gonna be able to dovetail into
an existing 70.3 and Ironman programme
with you still aiming to go back for Kona right?
- Absolutely, I mean I'm gonna do an
early season Ironman in 2019.
Then hopefully do a couple of sprint distance races,
you know with Dave, a few 70.3's as well.
And then hopefully once the selection process is done,
then I'll do Kona and then who knows
what's gonna happen in 2020, but for me,
I've got two goals, is to redemption in Kona
and let's qualify Dave to get him in the best shape possible
with the best tools for him to win a medal
and if I'm gonna be part of that in 2020,
I'm definitely gonna be a part of it,
but you know I've got big belief in him.
- Tim, it's been so good to hear about
everything that's gone on since having the halo come off
and everybody here is just looking forward
to following, seeing you get back there
and excited to see what's gonna happen.
Thanks so much, you've been brilliant.
- Hey no, always a pleasure mate, cheers, thanks.
- Brilliant.