The Iron Will of Tara Llanes

I have been wanting to tell four-time national bike champion Tara Llanes’s story for several years — not how she became paralyzed crashing in a downhill mountain bike race in 2007, but how she’s come fighting back and put her energy and competitive spirit into other avenues. We emailed back and forth a few times, but never connected. I wanted to give her and her story the depth it deserved, and the demands of getting this website off the ground got in the way (sorry, Tara!). No matter: It looks like young B.C. filmmaker Aaron Larocque is telling her story (and those of other injured athletes) and doing a hell of a good job.

Llanes set her sights on racing in the Hawaii Ironman and in late 2009 devoted herself to training. One impediment she hadn’t envisioned was that her need to drink tons of liquids would lead to frequent pee stops, which meant someone would have to lift her from her hand bike or racing chair and take her to the bathroom.

“I’d come to the realization that if I wanted to do the Ironman I had to sort something out,” she said. “I started checking around and found out that a couple friends had gone to a doctor at USC and had a special surgery doubling the size of their bladder. Who knew you could even do that? … This surgery was going to be extremely helpful in pursuing my Ironman goal, but it would also be a huge positive in my quality of life in general.”

Unfortunately, there were complications with the surgery, and Tara’s recovery was longer than expected, which blew her training window to get fit enough to qualify.

“So there you have it…my life during those months in a nutshell. That is what this teaser is all about, but there is more to this story…My goal of course was to cross that finish line in Kona, but in the end I never made it because of the surgery that would have allowed me to actually compete in it. It’s crazy how life works isn’t it? Even though I didn’t compete, the process I had to go through will still be a huge part of the story. Maybe not the part that crossed the finish line in Kona, but a part of this journey I call my life.”

Larocque is just 23 but already shows a fine sense of narrative and a great eye. He doesn’t have a title for the project and hasn’t announced an end date, but I can’t wait to see it complete.