CJ Texler: A Heart For Giving Her Best To Others

CJ Texler: A Heart For Giving Her Best To Others

"The swim start for me is the parade of nations ... the IM finisher's medal is as good as gold..."

Some of us have become involved in the Ironman because we need to know, to quantify, exactly what our physical and mental limits are. There are others that have already become familiar with their limits, and see the Ironman as simply another challenge left to be conquered. Their reasoning that 'if I can do X, then I certainly can do Y,' is the logic used by many. Caryn Texler is one of those people.

 

Caryn, or CJ to her training partners, never considered herself an athlete, but became mesmerized by the idea of sport when she was a paramedic at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. One of her many assignments included working at the gymnastics venue, and she was only 10 feet away from Kerri Strug when she completed her final vault with a sprained ankle and won Olympic gold.

 

"These Olympic athletes worked so hard just to have the opportunity to compete; to toe that starting line or make the team. To see the look on their faces as they played their games or performed their routines, and to be doing something to help the games that I was so very proud of, was an amazing feeling."

 

"For me, crossing the IM finish line must be a similar feeling to how it must feel to do an Olympic vault. The swim start for me is the parade of nations. And the IM finisher's medal is as good as gold in my mind."

 

CJ finished her first Ironman at Florida in 2003, and this year, spent most of her time planning a wedding in New York, even though she lives in Maryland, and training for Ironman Wisconsin. She missed out on a lot of training and became sick right before her wedding and had to pull out of a Half Ironman that she had been training for.

 

"I had to pull this whole season of training for Ironman Wisconsin together in six weeks. I was definitely under trained and less confident than I was for Ironman Florida last year, but much more motivated, so I knew I'd be fine."

 

To help her mentally prepare for Ironman Wisconsin, CJ took flying trapeze lessons at the Trapeze School New York-Baltimore (TSNY-Baltimore) to learn how to focus and attack. She parlays this new approach to focus to the swim, bike, and run. With limited training, CJ did cross the line in Madison, and even set a new Ironman personal best by fifteen minutes. She accomplished this even though she took a four minute penalty for accepting medical assistance because her legs cramped up badly at mile seventy-five of the bike.

 

When she's not swimming, biking, running, flying through the air, or playing the flute (she's also a professional flutist), CJ's regular job is as an IV therapy nurse on the adult Vascular Access Team at John's Hopkins hospital.  C.J sees it as the perfect job for someone that has the attention span of a gnat and likes instant gratification.

 

"You either get the IV in or you don't. You either hurt the patient or you don't. You want to know how to do a good job as an IV therapy nurse? Smile when you walk into the room. That's it. That's my trick. I may be the worst stick in the hospital, but if I can get a patient to relax, laugh or smile, the IV is going in."

 

CJ also spends part of her time at John's Hopkins teaching her trade to others and is currently working on an educational program for all of the medical residents. Each year CJ spends three days teaching medical students to start IVs.

 

"Sometimes, a year or two later, I'll have a former student running down the halls saying, 'CJ, I just started my first IV and got it on the first stick. I make an impact when I teach. I love to teach."

 

Her passion for endurance events began when she met a young man at the hospital named Shane Sullivan. Shane was diagnosed in 1999 with leukemia when he was just 9 years old.

 

"He put a live goldfish in an IV bag next to his chemotherapy in order to amuse himself during his hospital stays. Thinking he was the coolest kid ever, I wanted to do something more than nurse him back to health. So, I signed up to do a marathon in his honor with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Team in Training Program."

 

She started running because of Shane's inspiration and completed her first marathon for him in June 2000. At the same time that Shane was finished with his chemo treatments and in remission, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Team in Training Program added their first triathlon program at the Memphis in May Triathlon.

 

"He's now fighting cancer without medication, so I thought that I'll do something new and scary also."

 

She never wanted to do a triathlon. Even becoming a runner was challenge enough for her. During her first race of 3.5 miles, CJ passed out at the finish line and needed two liters of IV fluids and two amps of dextrose. She also almost drowned a few times while swimming.

 

"I have an irrational fear of fish, so open water swimming is especially terrifying. I can hold my own on a swim so long as I don't see or think I see any marine life. If I see anything with fins, including scuba divers, I abort mission and swim the other way."

 

As CJ was "deciding to become an athlete," she was already dealing with another challenge in her life, and on a more personal note.  CJ suffers from Lyme disease and is a severe asthmatic.

 

Lyme disease is an infection caused when you are bitten by a tick that is infected with Lyme disease bacteria. The first sign of Lyme disease is a red, slowly expanding "bull's-eye" rash that is accompanied by general tiredness, fever, headache, stiff neck, muscle aches, and joint pain. In a few people, early Lyme disease can spread to the heart or the nervous system. If Lyme disease spreads to the heart, the person may feel an irregular or slow heartbeat.

 

If Lyme disease isn't treated, symptoms of late Lyme disease include arthritis (painful, swollen joints) and nervous system problems. Lyme arthritis often affects only one of the large joints, such as the knee. Some patients may develop facial palsy, motor and sensory nerve inflammation, inflammation of the brain (encephalitis), and even cardiac problems.

 

Twelve years ago CJ was so sick with Lyme disease, she was too tired to get out of bed, too sore to walk, and too scared to think about whether she was going to live or die. She never thought she would be active again, let alone do a marathon or an Ironman.

 

"At the time, I thought that taking on the challenge was a little crazy. Yet I did it anyway! I am convinced that my hard-core training is saving my life. My doctor, Paul Foster, also believes the same thing. We have seen that when I slow down on my training, I tend to get sick. It's a little bizarre because you are supposed to take it easy when you don't feel well, but I have found the opposite to be true for me."

 

For CJ, the most difficult thing about training for Ironman is dealing with the ever-changing physical and mental stress. Anyone who has trained for one knows that sometimes this is just part of the arrangement, but when you are suffering from Lyme disease, it's a challenge to understand what is causing it.

 

"It's sometimes difficult for me to figure out what is physical and what is mental. I have some days where my joints ache terribly, my muscles are sore, and my skin feels like it has 2nd degree burns all over it. Those days, you can't even touch me; the air touching me is painful. They say swimming is great for arthritis but for me, sometimes swimming is more painful than weight bearing activity."

 

CJ still doesn't consider herself an athlete, nor does she consider crossing the line at Ironman Florida and Ironman Wisconsin her biggest accomplishment.  She acts as the head mentor and triathlon coaching assistant for the Maryland Team in Training program. As part of her duties, she spends four to five months every year working with the athletes, helping them achieve their fundraising goals, and getting them motivated to train and race.

 

"I truly believe that without me their experiences on the triathlon team wouldn't be as fulfilling, and likewise, without them, my experiences wouldn't be as rich either. It's the biggest honor to hug and high five these special athletes at the finish line."

 

"I love the new racers. The people like me who have no idea why they even decided to do this in the first place, or the ones who have overcome some enormous obstacle to be there."

 

When CJ races she also wears her Team in Training jersey and helps to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society through the Janus Charity Challenge. She races for Shane Sullivan who is now cured of his leukemia, Ali Olshewitz who had a bone marrow transplant last year, Janice Schwartz, a family friend who she has known all of her life, and Kati Fisher, a very close friend who was 14 years old when she lost her battle with leukemia this year.

 

"I may be helping to save lives by racing, but these people are saving my life because they inspire me to stay active. I couldn't be healthy without them."

 

You may contact Jim Scott at jscott@ironmanlive.com