Labor Day, Jacob Schulte enjoyed the sweet taste of victory when he came in 23 seconds ahead of Wounded Warrior athletes running in the TriRock Austin Sprint Triathlon held in Austin, Texas.
With an eight-hour drive home, Jacob and Sharon had planned to leave Austin as soon as the organization allowed him to get his bike.
That was the plan. Then they read his posted time.
He had placed first against other competitors.
“You have to stay and get your trophy,” Sharon insisted.
Jacob shrugged it off. As planned, they returned to their hotel for a quick shower and returned to wait for his bike to be released. While waiting, Sharon asked if the physically challenged division had been given their awards.
“No, not yet. They just began the ceremony,” a departing athlete said.
“Let’s go,” she insisted and began walking to the staging area.
They stood waiting in the middle of other physically challenged athletes.
“Who beat you?” one asked another of the team from Florida.
One man spied Jacob, “Did you beat me?”
Jacob feigned ignorance.
“Yes, he did – by a few seconds,” Sharon proudly announced.
Jacob modestly said nothing. He did smile broadly as he stood on the highest of the three podiums.
In a Facebook posting, Sharon observed, “There were several para-athletes here today. It was highly entertaining hearing them talk about their race adaptations.” She posted a picture of her husband with three members of the Wounded Warriors from Jacksonville, Fla., and each wore prosthetic legs designed for racing. Jacob lost his arm in an accident when he was two years-old.
The competition for Jacob began six years ago. Winning foosball with one hand and out scoring everyone in a game of Horse no longer challenged him. He bought a used racing bike, had the brakes altered to accommodate a one-armed man and shopped for running shoes. He found an indoor pool and began slipping out in the wee hours of the day to run, bike or swim.
Jacob could doggy paddle, but swimming with one arm has never been a place to show off his athletic prowess. Still he swam laps. As he swam, a former competitive swimmer noticed him and suggested Jacob try swimming like a dolphin.
Jacob practiced. The man offered a couple other suggestions. Jacob no longer felt in imminent danger of drowning in anything other than the calmest of waters.
He began looking for sprint triathlons. Not the Ironman level — just events which typically take competitors less than two hours. In 2010, he completed his first Healthworks Boomtown Triathlon. He knew he swam slow. He entered the pool last and swam solitary laps before hauling out of the water to pull on his jersey and bicycle shoes. By the time he ran across the finish line in running shoes, he had been moving for one hour 42 minutes and 36 seconds. He noted the time, picked up his participation ribbon and continued his early morning practice sessions.
The next time he competed in the Boomtown event, he proudly announced he had shaved off several minutes. The organization presented him with a first place trophy in the physically challenged division.
Later, he looked at his competition times and realized he actually had placed in the top three of all the men his age. This year, when Jacob signed up for the Boomtown Triathlon, he declined to be listed as a physically challenged athlete. He started in the middle of the pack. As he ran under the hot sun he wondered, “Why am I doing this to myself?”
He was the fifth person to cross the finish line, placed first in his age group of men and knew ‘why’ he had done it.
Jacob often has no competition in the para-athlete division. He accepts that reality and challenges himself to beat his previous times. Of course, every race has a different layout, a different level of challenge — and every race costs a different amount of money to enter. It also takes money through the year for equipment and gym memberships just to be fit enough for the competition. A couple years ago, he asked everyone he knew to vote for him to be a competitor for Chocolate Milk and now wears the orange and black jersey with the logo for “Chocolate Milk.”
Earlier this year, he wrote and asked for a grant from Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF) to run in races farther away and with higher entry fees. The grant paid for his hotel in Austin on Labor Day weekend.
So many people in Austin. So many more options in Austin: the super sprint triathlon, the sprint triathlon, the Olympic triathlon or Olympic Aquabike (just swimming and biking.)
Jacob completed the sprint in an hour, 28 minutes and 27 seconds.
Not bad for a one-armed man who works 40-plus hours a week, eats supper with his family and only exercises in the morning before the others wake. Not bad for a guy who six years ago could only doggy paddle with one arm. Not bad for the athlete who wanted to win. This year, he really did.
Joan Hershberger is a staff writer for the El Dorado News-Times.