Pat LaFontaine's Last Line Change From the Ice to the Asphalt

Pat LaFontaine's Last Line Change From the Ice to the Asphalt

The hockey hall-of-famer has turned his energies toward triathlon and helping children in need.

It doesn't take long to figure out that you're in the company of someone great when you meet Pat LaFontaine. One of the best Americans to ever play in the National Hockey League, LaFontaine was named to the NHL All-Star team six times during his career with the New York Islanders, Buffalo Sabres and New York Rangers. Forced to retire at only the age of 33 due to recurring concussions, LaFontaine was elected to the NHL Hall of Fame in 2003.

 

In other words, Pat LaFontaine is not your average Ironman triathlete. That becomes even more apparent when he shakes your hand - his is a grip of ... OK, I can't resist ... iron!

 

As great an athlete as LaFontaine was on the ice, he might end up being remembered more for his incredible works off it. When LaFontaine was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, ESPN writer Jim Kelley wrote about all the times he remembered LaFontaine answering a page and quietly disappearing. Like a real-life superhero, the hockey star was being summoned to the Buffalo Children's Hospital, where he was granting a final wish for a dying child - many times holding a hand and saying a prayer at the bedside of a young hockey fan. LaFontaine would go whenever he was called. Sometimes that was in the early hours of the morning as everyone else was getting off the team charter and heading home after a road trip.

 

LaFontaine's hockey career ended in part because of a series of concussions he suffered while playing. He remembers how scary that time of his life was.

 

"(I went through) post concussion syndrome twice for about six months each time," he said in an interview just before he raced at Ironman Florida last November. "It's a very strange and scary place. Your enthusiasm, your drive, your personality, everything that makes you who you are, it's not there. There are a lot of symptoms. I had migraine headaches, I was very lethargic, and I got very depressed. There's no energy, and there's no real light at the end of the tunnel. You're wondering what's happening to you, you're not yourself ... it's a very scary feeling."

 

"I was very fortunate. I played the game for 15 years. I loved the game and the game was very good to me. I have three healthy kids (Sarah, Brianna and Daniel) and a great wife (Marybeth). My doctor, Dr. Kelly, finally looked at me and said it's time to give up hockey. He let me go back once, but the second time I went through post-concussion, he said it was time to retire."

 

Rather than mope about the end of his career, LaFontaine got himself busy.

 

"It was a difficult time, having to give up something I loved," he said. "Keeping busy was very important. I had my family, but I also kept busy renovating some houses. Then I wrote a book called "Companions in Courage," which then evolved into this really great foundation. That became my focus."

 

"When I look back, I realize that there are no coincidences in life," LaFontaine said. "Things do happen for a reason. Life is a learning experience, and you really have to choose to learn from it - not to ask questions, but to learn from it."

 

The foundation that evolved from the book is also called "Companions in Courage." Its goal is to build interactive playrooms in children's hospitals throughout North America. Through innovative communications tools, these playrooms will replace the isolation of a hospital with a connection to family, friends and celebrities during a child's hospital stay. The initial 'Lion's Den Room' (as the rooms are called) debuted at the Maria Fareri Hospital in Westchester, N.Y. (For more information on the foundation, or to donate, visit http://www.cic16.org./)

 

"Being with these kids - knowing their smiles, their pain and their courage - changed my life," LaFontaine wrote on the "Companions in Courage" website. "They taught me about life and death. These children left me with a simple reality: We don't always have much control over what happens to us, but we do have a choice in how we respond."

 

LaFontaine is a man of honor, the kind of guy you know will keep any promises he makes to you. In case you needed any further proof, here's one of the reason's he decided to compete at Ironman Florida last year:

 

"I promised myself I would do an Ironman before I was 40," he said. "If you can't keep a promise to yourself, who can you keep one too?"

 

LaFontaine has been an avid cyclist for about 10 years. He typically spends a lot of time on his bicycle traversing the hills of Long Island. The transition from skating to cycling was a bit easier than trying to swim and run with his hockey player's build.

 

"I had to really work at the running and swimming," he said. "To get a really good swim stroke down takes a long time."

 

The other issue was that hockey and triathlon require very different energy systems.

 

"I was more of a power, anaerobic- type athlete," he said. "When you introduce a truly aerobic sport, your muscles have to adapt. I've had to really work ... what we used to do in one hour, now I have to drag out for three or four."

 

Then there was one more challenge: the total knee reconstruction LaFontaine underwent in 1993. Leading up to Ironman Florida, LaFontaine kept his long runs to a minimum.

 

Despite all the challenges, the 39-year-old completed Ironman Florida in thirteen hours, six minutes and 49 seconds. Right with him were two old friends, Pete Smith (Huntington, N.Y.) and Bob DeAngelo of (Greenwich, Conn.). The three raised more than $33,000 for the "Companions in Courage" foundation.

 

There aren't too many similarities between playing NHL Hockey and completing an Ironman, but LaFontaine believes that his hockey career helped prepare him for the challenges he would face to become an Ironman, but even more importantly, helped him to find a cause he really believes in.

 

"The game of hockey allowed me to get involved with this foundation, which has been the next part of my life," he said. "It was a stepping stone to what I've done next. The game cannot only teach you about discipline, sacrifice, teamwork, and pushing yourself to extremes, it also prepares you for so many things."

 

Like being the kind of person who can use his fame to help a child in a desperate time, or to add an Ironman finish to a resume that hardly needs any more impressive achievements.

 

You may contact Kevin Mackinnon at kmackinnon@ironmanlive.com