Texas man will take on Ironman with prosthetic

More than a thousand triathletes will jump into Sandusky Bay early Sunday to start the Sandusky Ironman 70.3. From a distance, they'll all look fairly anonymous, but one guy will be easy to spot. D.J. Vale will be working with just one leg when he hits the water. He'll compete in the biking and running portions of the event with a prosthetic on his left leg. When people inquire about what happened to him, Vale is happy to chat. In fact, he's just plain happy. "My physician said that I'm probably one of the most well-adapted amputees he's had. I'm pretty positive," Vale said. "At the end of the day, you can shrivel up and die or try to live. Just keep going." Vale, who lives in McKinney, Texas, had his lower left leg amputated on July 25, 2017, after being hit by a car while riding his motorcycle on the way to work. "I was at a dangerous intersection and the car in front of me slammed on its brakes. I hit my brakes," Vale said. "She was trying to cut across traffic. It was terrible timing and she caught me flush. I went flying and my foot stayed still. "If I didn't have my helmet on I'd be dead. I have it at home and it has a big scrape on it." Vale said he was lucky he wasn't run over after being knocked off his motorcycle. He thought he would bleed out at the scene. He didn't, and he somehow maintained his sense of humor. "In the ambulance, the paramedic was talking to me, trying to keep me awake and asked how tall I was," Vale said. "I said, 'At this point it depends on what foot I'm standing on.' " After a short hospital stay, Vale was back at work in eight days. He worked for an auto insurance company at the time and is now an insurance adjuster. "My first question was how quickly could I get back to running?" he said. Prior to the accident, Vale began dabbling in what he called "entry level" triathlons. "Triathlons have always intrigued me," he said. "About six months before the accident I had big aspirations. Then I gained 60 pounds. You go from training to sitting on the couch all the time. It hit pretty quickly." Vale, 51, said he weighed about 185 pounds at the time of the accident. The former powerlifter is now closer to 210. "After awhile I was tired of being sore all the time so I bought a bike and a treadmill," he said. Vale is able to use three different prosthetics: an everyday model, an articulating ankle version and a running blade. "My foot was crushed," he said. "My surgeon said it felt like a bag of dry rice. Luckily, my fibula and tibia were intact (allowing for better flexibility with the prosthetics)." He said the blade is good for running, but does not give him any advantages. "You can't create energy like a normal leg," he said. "Every step I take with my prosthetic leg I'm losing speed. Half my steps are on my left foot." Vale began training for the Sandusky Ironman 70.3 last November. "I had to train to get fit enough to get fit," he said. "I was questioning whether I'd get there. I've built confidence, but I am in the freak-out zone. 'Can I do it? Can I do it?' " One of the reasons he picked the Sandusky race is because his wife, Jennifer, is a Youngstown native. "If I'm going to pull her across the country while I'm racing, I might as well let her have family around," he joked. Jennifer will get a "handler" pass that will allow her to meet Vale after his 1.2-mile swim so he can attach his prosthetic for a 56-mile bike ride. After biking, he will embark on a 13.1-mile run. Since the amputation seven years ago, Vale said he's biked 56 miles twice and has finished a half marathon. He also competed in a mud race a couple years ago and has challenged himself in a Spartan Race, which features obstacles that vary in difficulty. Vale has no grand illusions of rolling past the finish line with the leaders, but, all things considered, his time might be as impressive as any in the field of 1,500 athletes. "Completion is my No. 1 goal," he said. "I would like to do it in less than seven hours, but that's a 'reach' goal. Just finish."