A BAD BREAK FOR A QUAD GREAT PART I

On any normal Highmark QUAD Bike Race, which is to say any of the last 25 years or so, Randy McElwain, his wife and three kids would pile into the family car and drive the five hours or so fromDetroit, rip it up on the bike course and head back home.  And when Randy isn’t tearing up the QUAD, he’s training for serious triathlons, running long distance events, coaching a

Randy had the fastest swim in the 2012 Edinboro Triathlon by more than two minutes

triathlon team at his local YMCA, going for a five hour training ride, entering an off road marathon or swimming Lake Erie.  He’s done the latter twice by the way, the second time, not just swimming from Canada to the closest Erie shore line but swimming through the channel into the Bay and climbing up the steps onto the dock at Dobbins Landing because . . . well you know, because its there.  He also did it to raise contributions for research inton Alopecia, a disease his daughter Cassie (a multi-QUAD age group award winner and Highmark QUAD Champion since the age seven.)

 Everything changed in June when Randy was on the road for an early morning training ride preparing for an August date with the Ironman triathlon in Mont Tremblant,Canada.  A large truck (a Ford F-350  is a very large truck) turned in front of a speeding Randy who crashed into the vehicle.

 A Pollyanna by nature, Randy looks at the bright side: sure he split his kneecap and he’ll be down awhile and yeah, his beautiful, less than one year old carbon TT bike is a pile of plastic shards but he’s alive and well.  The knee cap will hopefully mend, the bike can be replaced and there are a lot of worse alternatives.

 And if anyone can bounce back from such a crash it’s Randy who I’m sure we’ll be seeing again very soon in the Highmark QUAD world.