Derek Garcia was living in Coeur d’Alene when he heard that the Ironman was coming to town. “My first thought was that the Ironman was, for some reason, abandoning the Big Island of Hawaii and moving their event to Idaho,” he laughs. Before he did his first multi-sport race, he thought that once you put air in your tires at the beginning of the summer, you’re good to go pretty much for the rest of the year. “ I raced with about 40 pounds of pressure in my tires,” he remembers. Garcia quickly moved up the age group ranks and qualified for Kona in both 2010 and 2011 and turned pro in 2012. But his whole world was turned upside down when he was diagnosed with testicular cancer – he received the news while he was at his wife Shannon’s college graduation. About six months after the diagnosis, he went sub-nine hours at Ironman Arizona. Derek Garcia is a young man who understands that while being a professional triathlete is great, being a husband and a father of three is the greatest gift of all.

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