COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – It is June 2015. Scotty Smiley cannot see the Ironman finish line but the roar of the crowd leaves no doubt it is there.
Scotty is a retired Army Major who was blinded by a suicide bomber in Iraq. Scotty and his brother-in-law, Andy, who guided him through the Ironman course, crossed the finish line as a team. A year and two months later, Smiley still carries the Ironman pride.
"Just to hear, ‘Major Scotty Smiley you are an Ironman,’ was an amazing feeling," said Smiley.
It is an amazing physical feat for anyone. But for the Army veteran and his wife, Tiffany, it was if the highs and lows of the last 10 years were all compressed into that finish.
"The Ironman is just a beautiful example of how far we've come in the journey of it," said Tiffany.
It was April 6, 2005. Scotty was on a mission in Iraq to find a man with a suicide car bomb.
"And yelled at him to get out of his vehicle. He looked over his left shoulder at me, raised his hands off the steering wheel and just shook his head no," said Scotty. “And then, boom, he detonated his car."
Scotty woke up about a week and-a-half later in Walter Reed Army Medical Center, half his body paralyzed and blind the rest of his life.
“We've been in that place where Scotty couldn't even get out of bed. And I didn't even like know what life was going to look like,” said Tiffany. “You know, never in a million years would I have looked back and thought Scotty will be an Ironman. Never."
It was even questionable the day of his race. Andy and Scotty hit the run around the hottest part of the triple digit day and it appeared Scotty had nothing left.
"And it was at that time that I wanted to give up, that I wanted to quit, that I wanted to throw in the towel," said Scotty.
"I was like, 'Come on! Go! Scotty, Scotty.' And he's like no reaction. Like didn't even acknowledge I was there," Tiffany explained.
After all he had conquered, he was starting to think Ironman was about to conquer him. Scotty was veering toward surrender, when Tiffany appeared along the course.
"She told me bluntly, ‘Scotty you're not doing this for yourself, you're doing it for those who never made it back from war and more importantly you're doing it for those who did make it back that are still fighting,’" he said.
That is where Scotty's goal snapped back into focus. He realized this race was bigger than him. Carried by his friends, family and complete strangers, Scotty summoned the strength. When he turned the corner onto Sherman Avenue he could hardly contain his joy.
"It was just that feeling of complete joy and I said, ‘Hey let's run it in.’ And he said, ‘Um, it is a quarter of a mile, Scotty.’ And I said, ‘No we can do it,’" Scotty explained.
That is what he did. Over the previous 140.6 hard-fought miles, Scotty learned in a new way that sometimes in life you'll feel pain, even agony but if you fight for what you love, the seemingly impossible is possible. With just about 12 minutes to spare, Scotty and Andy crossed the finish line.
"I had seen Scotty at his weakest. Extreme weakest point. Almost knocking on death's door and then to see him crossing that Ironman finish line. I mean it gives me goosebumps now. It's just, it's incredible, it's just the message that you can be anything you want to be. Truly," Tiffany explained.