Monday, October 22, 2007

Scott Rigsby- 1st Double Amputee Ironman


Scott Rigsby, originally uploaded by TimothyJ.



Double amputee struggles, succeeds (From the AJC)

The Atlanta Ironman kept to his wheelchair this past week. The ends of his amputated legs were blistered, swollen and raw, and showing signs of infection. His muscles felt like they had been doing laps through a pasta maker. The gifts of completing one of the globe's notorious endurance races just kept giving.

A week ago, on the big island of Hawaii, Scott Rigsby, 39, became the first below-the-knee double amputee to complete an Ironman triathlon. That meant swimming 2.4 miles without legs, then biking 112 miles and running a 26.2-mile marathon with prosthetics. He had 17 hours to complete the task. He made it in 16:42:46 — a little close, but that kind of history didn't require much margin.

More...


I photographed Scott last year on the Georgia Rides to the Capital ride, and met him a few days later at a triathlon expo. He is a super nice guy. One of the things that struck me about him was his uncanny sense of balance. He was walking around on two prosthetics as well as most people do with real feet. He told me he played nose guard in high school and succeeded because of his sense of balance.

I have read about other amputees having issues with blisters and sores on their stumps during shorter athletic events. I cannot even imagine what Scott went through during an Ironman. Since the story mentions him being in his wheelchair since the race, it must have been pretty bad. It is hard enough to finish an Ironman on two good legs (I have 5 finishes), I cannot even imagine the hell he went through. The guy is something else!

Scott Rigsby

Thursday, October 04, 2007

FM.24.07 No Brakes Omnium Video

Something I ran across that was filmed during the race.

Velvet Revolver and Alice in Chains

The promoter started giving away free tickets to the Velvet Revolver and Alice and Chains show in Atlanta at the HiFi Buys Amphitheater (Lakewood). With free tickets available, why not? We scored some lousy seats and then just sat in some good ones for the show.



The crowd was a bit rough looking, but all seemed to be there just to have a good time. I am grateful I was not hit with a drug test at work this morning. It seems like everybody was smoking pot at the show and everybody also ignored all the no smoking signs. Usually Lakewood is good about enforcing that rule, but they really did not even make an effort last night.

Alice in Chains was loud. Their 3 big hits sounded fantastic and all their other stuff kind of blurred together. The had great video for "Rooster" which included morphing images of Bush, shots of GOP presidents, various wars, Bush's crooked administration, one image of a "Bush Lied, Thousands Die" sign, and the last image "No War!" That seemed to get approval form the crowd that did not really look political.

Velvet Revolver was decent. Weiland has a stage presence very similar to Mick Jagger. His voice in inconsistent, however. Slash is great when not screwing licks. The rhythm section is the best part of the band. The did a few Stone Temple Pilot songs and GNR's "Patience." I enjoyed it, but we did not bother to stay till the end. Beating the traffic seemed more important than catching the last few songs.

Overall good, but probably not worth the hearing loss I suffered.

Monday, October 01, 2007

Critical Mass September 2007


Peachtree Street, originally uploaded by TimothyJ.

About 400+ Massers tooling down Peachtree Street.