Event and Blood Drive at The Ohio State University

President of The Ohio State University, Dr. Gordon Gee, stopped by to show his support at the Iron Heart/Ohio State blood drive

IRONMAN ATHLETE TELLS TALES OF DEATH TO LIFE 

The Ohio State University Newspaper “The Lantern” 

By Caitlyn Wasmundt

“I don’t want to die.” 

That was Brian Boyle’s only thought when he woke from a coma and a priest read him his last rites. 

Boyle shared his experience of going from deathbed to Hawaiian Ironman in three years when he spoke at the Ohio Union Feb. 23 as collaboration between the Ohio Union Activities Board and the American Red Cross. 

In 2004, a car crash almost ended Boyle’s life at age 18, when a dump truck smashed into Boyle’s car. Not only did Boyle suffer broken bones and internal bleeding, but his heart shifted to the other side of his chest from the impact. Boyle said paramedics and doctors revived him eight times in two months to keep him alive. 

Boyle gave the audience a first-person account of what he experienced after waking up in the hospital and having no idea where he was or why he was there. 

“I awake to regular beeping sounds,” Boyle said. “I’m alone in a white room and looking straight up at the ceiling … I try to raise my arms, then legs, but I can’t move them. My head won’t budge either.” 

Moments after waking up, a dark shadowy figure walked into Boyle’s room. He said he feared it was death, but then realized it was a priest who began reading his last rites. 

As he read his story to the audience, Boyle had to stop for a moment. 

“I’m sorry, flashbacks,” he said. 

Katie Sattler, a fourth-year in nursing, said Boyle’s story touched her on a personal and professional level. 

“It was very inspirational, it gives me a different standpoint in nursing,” Sattler said. 

Two months after regaining consciousness, doctors moved Boyle to a therapy facility, Boyle told his audience. 

During his time in the Intensive Care Unit and rehab, Boyle said he lost hope and didn’t see a reason to live. But through faith and his parents’ love, he said he realized he needed to fight. 

Boyle wrote a book about his journey called “Iron Heart: The True Story of How I Came Back From the Dead.” 

Three years after the accident, Boyle said he decided to compete in the Hawaii Ironman, an endurance triathlon consisting of a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run. 

Boyle said his decision to compete was his way of telling those around him that he was finally OK. 

“Ironman sealed the deal on my recovery,” Boyle said. 

He finished the competition in 14 hours and 42 minutes, just three years after being told he might never walk again. 

“It was the breath of life all over again,” Boyle said about crossing the finish line. 

Doire Perot, a third-year in operations management and president of American Red Cross Club at OSU, said hearing Boyle’s story was an incredible opportunity for OSU students. 

“You can take a lot away from Brian’s story, even if you aren’t an athlete,” Perot said. 

After telling his audience his firsthand experience, he opened it up to a Q-and-A session. 

With the students from the Ohio Union Activities Board

Audience members asked him a wide range of questions, from his training regimen for his first Ironman to how he feels about driving after the accident. 

Since his first Ironman competition, Boyle has competed in about 30 other endurance competitions, he said. 

Boyle said he doesn’t remember the accident, but is still cautious when he’s on the road. 

“I don’t remember the accident, but the scars are there,” Boyle said of his lost memory. 

To read more, please visit the newspaper’s website.

My visit with the students at St. Mary’s Ryken High School

INSPIRATIONAL ATHLETE, AUTHOR DISCUSSES BOOK WITH RYKEN STUDENTS 

The County Times Newspaper

By Carrie Munn

St. Mary’s College of Maryland alum and Southern Maryland local legend Brian Boyle visited English students at St. Mary’s Ryken last Friday to talk about his inspirational, nonfiction book, “Iron Heart.” 

The work was assigned reading for several Ryken juniors and Boyle addressed their inquiries about his true-life account of overcoming injuries sustained in a 2004 severe automobile accident and going on to complete the grueling Ironman competition. 

Athlete and author Brian Boyle answers a variety of student questions during his visit to St. Mary’s Ryken.

At 18, Boyle, of Welcome, in Charles County, was an honor student and all-star athlete at McDonough High School when his life was placed in peril after his Camaro was struck by a dump truck. In 2007, Boyle, who technically died multiple times during surgeries and was told he may never walk again, made headlines when he crossed the finish line after the intense 2.4-swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile full marathon in Kona, Hawaii. 

From coma to Kona, “Iron Heart” is his personal and inspirational tale and one that Ryken English teacher Misty Frantz said her students connect with. 

“Every day I inspire my students to accomplish their goals and make the world a better place,” Frantz said, adding the choices she makes in literature have to support the ‘quitting is not a option’ philosophy she lives and teaches by. “Brian’s story fits right in with that philosophy,” she told The County Times. 

She explained “Iron Heart” is an inspirational yet relatable tale for her students and that the experience of meeting Boyle makes the book come to life for them. 

Students asked Boyle questions ranging from the serious; “Did you ever want to just give up?” and “Did you ever question your faith?” to the superficial; “Do you have a girlfriend?” and “How much can you bench?” 

Boyle answered them all candidly and with a sense of humor. As one session wrapped up, he told the high schoolers, “I’m nothing different, I just have a crazy story to share.” 

Boyle said the book was borne from his personal journaling during the lengthy recovery process, explaining it took time to determine which memories were a reality and which were not. Boyle said he was determined to get out of the hospital bed he’d spent weeks in, not just for his sake, but for his parents’. “I just had to pull through for them,” he said. 

He said as crazy as it sounds, it took something as intense as finishing the Ironman for him to feel his recovery was complete. “Every week, every day was and is a gift,” Boyle said, adding that in the years since his miraculous recovery he has sought out the medical workers who saved his life and thanked them, has become an American Red Cross advocate and public speaker, as well as pushing the athletic envelope for himself. He continues to train extensively and competes in many endurance events with sponsorships. 

Boyle said he is working on getting back to Kona, to disprove the naysayers who claimed he only got the chance to compete because of the media attention and his amazing story. He said in the future two goals are to qualify straight-up for the Ironman and The Boston Marathon. 

The athlete shared that his outlook on life is forever changed, saying he wakes up happy to be able to move his toes each morning and has an enhanced level of determination and appreciation in life. 

When a student asked the author, “Would you go back and change it if you could?”, Boyle responded that as tough as it was, he wouldn’t take it back for the platform his experience has given him to help others. 

He said his thoughts went from ‘Why did He let this happen to me?’ to ‘Why has He saved me?’ From there, his spirit of determination carried him through a remarkable recovery and he now serves as inspiration for other athletes and trauma patients facing a seemingly insurmountable return to normalcy. 

As for his book, “Iron Heart” is written in a simplistic, first-hand narrative and Boyle said his hope in publishing the work is that it ends up in the hands of someone in a similar situation and gives them the hope to push through it. 

“My students continually tell me that this is the one book they enjoyed reading,” Frantz said, adding that Brian is real and by him taking the time to come meet with the students, “…my students see you can accomplish anything you put your mind to.” 

Many excited students requested photos with the athlete and author following their open dialogue about the reading. 

Boyle’s book is available through Amazon.com and all major retailers. More information can be found by visiting http://www.iron-heart.org/.

Charlotte Observer Newspaper: Determination links generations of ‘Ironmen’

My grandfather and I at the 2008 Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Clearwater, Florida

This is a newspaper article that was published in December 2011, and I wanted to post it in on my blog to celebrate the Air Force retirement of my grandfather, which took place on January 31, 2012

DETERMINATION LINKS GENERATIONS OF ‘IRONMEN’

Charlotte Observer, by Joe DePriest

Catawba County (North Carolina) native Joe Lineberger, 80, and his grandson, Brian Boyle, 25, are best friends. They hang out, talk a lot and enjoy the company. What’s more: they inspire each other. They’ve inspired me since I’ve gotten to know them over the past few weeks.

When Boyle told me about his grandfather’s recent “Spirit of Service” award from the U.S. Air Force, he didn’t mention his book about recovering from a near fatal auto accident as a teenager. “Iron Heart” by Brian Boyle with Bill Katovsky (founder of Triathlete magazine) was first published in 2009 and a paperback version came out on Nov. 15.

Lineberger brought up the subject of his grandson soon after we first talked. He asked if I knew about Boyle’s injuries, his comeback and completing a dream of finishing an Ironman Triathlon.

That’s how it went: grandfather and grandson putting the emphasis not on themselves, but the other. There’s an energy going on here – a sharing of strength. 

As a kid, Lineberger picked cotton on a Catawba County farm and later worked in his uncle’s grocery in downtown Maiden. Three uncles served in World War II and he was proud of them. At Maiden High, he played football, baseball and basketball – dreaming of going to Duke University. His family couldn’t afford the tuition so Lineberger joined Duke’s R.O.T.C. program and worked odd jobs like waiting tables in the university dining hall and selling football programs at games.

He was determined to succeed and earned a bachelor’s degree from Duke. Later, he’d get a master of business administration degree from the University of Chicago.

Action in Vietnam

Lineberger’s Air Force career began in 1953; he retired 28 years later as a colonel, but stayed on as a civilian employee. At 80, Lineberger still works full-time at Andrews Air Force Base and the Pentagon. He’s a Senior Executive Service member, the equivalent of a three-star general. 

The “Spirit of Service” award is for more than 50 years of service, including assignments with Air Force headquarters in Washington and the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force. Lineberger was military assistant to the assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower, Reserve Affairs and Installations under five assistant secretaries. 

During the recent awards ceremony Michael Rhodes, director of administration and management in the office of the Secretary of Defense, talked about Lineberger and others who were being honored that day. ”….They’ve had a hand in creating the world we live in today,” he said. “For more than five decades, each of the tremendous public servants we’re celebrating today has ensured our military strength and readiness. They meant business and they got business done.” 

Lineberger has pulled his share of administrative duties. But he was also awarded the Bronze Star for taking part in ground action during the bloody 1968 Tet Offensive in Vietnam. He was in Cholon, the Chinese section of Saigon, where some of the most intense fighting took place. 

The Vietnam War is a subject he knows first-hand. He’s researched Congressional Medal of Honor nominations for two Air Force heroes killed in Vietnam and shepherded the paperwork through the system: From the Joint Chiefs of Staff and defense department to Congress and the White House. ”I guided them through the hoops,” Lineberger said. “I know the hoops. I’ve been through them before.”

One of those Medal of Honor winners, Airman Bill Pitsenbarger, is the subject of a movie that will be filmed next year, partly in the Carolinas and Georgia. Lineberger is one of the consultants on “The Last Full Measure” with an all-star cast that includes Bruce Willis, Robert Duvall, Laurence Fishburne, Morgan Freeman and Charlie Hunnam. 

Lineberger has many relatives and friends in North Carolina and wishes he could get back more often to see them. Maybe the movie will give him the chance. 

Meanwhile, he’s still working with the Air Force because “it keeps the mind fresh,” Lineberger told me.

His wife, Mary Helen, died seven years ago. They had five children. Boyle is the oldest of nine grandchildren. 

Although Lineberger keeps in shape by walking, he doesn’t do the grueling Ironman Triathlons and marathons Boyle takes on. But Lineberger is often at the finish line to offer encouragement.  The fact his grandson is out doing all that physically challenging stuff is nothing short of a miracle. 

Learning to walk

Boyle, who lives in Welcome, Md., was 18 when he headed home from swim practice one day and a dump truck rammed into his Camaro. Air-lifted to a shock-trauma hospital, he’d lost 60 percent of his blood, his heart had moved across his chest, and his organs and pelvis were pulverized.  In a coma for two months, he eventually came to and relearned how to walk, run and swim. 

He’s won all sorts of competitions, graduated cum laude from St. Mary’s College of Maryland and in 2010 was awarded the American Red Cross Regional Spokesperson of the Year award for the second year in a row. 

Boyle has been featured on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” NBC’s “Today” show, ESPN, and in The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Fitness magazine, Runner’s World – the list goes on and on. You can get all the details in “Iron Heart: The True Story of How I Came Back From the Dead.” 

Boyle survived because of his ironclad determination. He got that from his grandfather – somebody Boyle said “I want to and will try to emulate the rest of my life.” 

A “model of determination,” Boyle called him. “And most of all, a hero.” 

I’d call both of them “ironmen.”

To read more, please visit here.