By Lyle Anderson

I was born and raised in Richland, Washington.  My family moved to Southern Utah in 1993,  where I still live to this day.  I have been married for 16 years and have four beautiful children.  I was introduced to running about seven years ago.  After being diagnosed with MS (multiple sclerosis) on my 30th birthday, I decided I still had a few things I wanted to accomplish in my life while I still have the ability to do so.

When I was first diagnosed I could barely walk.  My legs just wouldn’t cooperate with me. My eyes weren’t working right either which made things even more difficult. When my doctor first diagnosed me with MS she told me I could be in a wheelchair in 5 – 10 years. Looking back I’m sure she was just trying to give me a “worst case” scenario. I was totally devastated! My wife was pregnant with our 3rd child at the time and all I could think of was my wife’s Aunt, who also has MS and has been in a wheelchair the whole time I have known my wife. I had so much I wanted to do still in my life.  I guess this was the kick in the pants I needed to get my life back on track.  I started taking Rebif along with steroid infusions.  After a few weeks the numbness went away and my motor functions improved.

In 2010 with a little motivation from my father-in-law I ran my first full Marathon.  Since then I have completed 7-full marathons, 8-half Ironman distance races, 12-Olympic Triathlons, 7- Sprint Triathlons, 38-half marathons and more 5k’s and relays than I care to list. To top it all off in 2012 I decided to do the full St. George Ironman. This decision wasn’t something I thought I would ever want to do. However, they announced this was going to be the last year for the full race and I didn’t want to have any regrets if I missed it. With the encouragement of friends and family I signed up. The training was way harder than I ever thought it would be. But I took one workout at a time and before I knew it race day was here!

*Tune in tomrrow for Part II of Lyle’s story.