thedrifter
08-08-08, 06:20 AM
Ex-Marine aims to finish race
By AMANDA CREGAN
The Intelligencer
Dan Lasko doesn't run, swim and bike his way to the finish line because he has something to prove.
He does it because there is a brotherhood of injured Marines and soldiers just like him who know they will finish the race together.
Four years after losing his left leg in a roadside bomb explosion in Afghanistan, Lasko travels across the country to compete in triathlons.
The Bethlehem resident will join nearly 1,000 athletes on Sunday to compete in the fourth annual Steelman Triathlon at Nockamixon State Park.
The triathalon has grown from 300 participants to 1,000 in just three years. The race has become popular because it caters to different types of athletes.
The Sprint category of competition starts with an 800-yard swim and then athletes hop on a bike for a 12.8-mile trek through the park followed by a 3.1-mile run. The Olympic category participants double those distances.
All proceeds will benefit Make-A-Wish Foundation of Philadelphia and Susquehanna Valley.
“It is a race put on by triathletes for triathletes,” said Steelman Triathlon director Dale Winterhoff.
For Marine amputee Lasko, competing as a triathlete was not something he would have imagined as he lay confined to a military hospital bed wondering how he could ever walk again.
Lasko's road to the race began in 2004 when he was a 21-year-old Marine only a month into his first tour of duty in Afghanistan.
On April 24, Cpl. Lasko and his buddies from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit set out on a reconnaissance mission 60 miles north of Kandahar, a large province in southern Afghanistan.
Although it only took seconds for the two improvised explosive devices to explode under his vehicle and rip apart his left leg, Lasko says that afternoon moved in slow motion for him.
“I took the brunt of the force. I took the whole explosion,” he said. “I was awake but it was like slow motion. It happened so fast but it went so slow at the same time.”
With the bottom half of his left leg mangled and shredded beneath him, Lasko had to crouch in the Humvee as his fellow Marines defended themselves in a firefight.
Bullets rained down on them just after the explosives tore through their vehicle.
An hour after the blast, Lasko was fully aware and fully in pain as he was airlifted to a military hospital in Germany.
“I knew what was going on at the time,” he said. “I knew half my leg was gone and the pain I was going through. It was very, very painful.”
Lasko contracted the first of many infections to his open wounds in the helicopter out of Afghanistan. It was the first of many, which ultimately led to seven amputations to his left leg.
Lasko spent the next year in military hospitals, including Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Lasko quickly became reliant on pain pills and alcohol. He said he used them to cover the pain of post traumatic stress disorder more than the physical pain shooting up his leg.
He was among so many of the returning combat soldiers and Marines who find that the journey home can be emotionally crippling.
“A lot of guys just fall into a black hole,” he said. “I caught myself right before I fell into it.”
It wasn't his visible injuries but his struggles with PTSD that pushed Lasko into signing up for the newly formed triathalon team.
“I saw they were putting this together and I just had to do this,” said Lasko.
Fitted with a prosthetic, he ran his first race, a 10K, with a team of injured Marines.
Now as co-captain of Team Semper Fi, Lasko says the challenges he faces as a single amputee athlete sometimes pale in comparison to many of his teammates.
They are Marines, sailors and soldiers who face each day as a quadriplegic, double amputee or suffer from severe PTSD.
Although not all of them are able to compete in full, each one gives their all.
Lasko looks forward to a full life ahead of him. He shares a home in Bethlehem with his wife, Jessica, and is working toward with an associate's degree in criminal justice from Northampton Community College.
At age 25, the retired Marine and members of Team Semper Fi see each race as another victory.
“Not only do you fight for your country but you fight for your injured Marines,” he said. “We will finish the race together.”
Amanda Cregan can be reached at 215-538-6371 or acregan@phillyBurbs.com.
For more information and to help support the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund and Team Semper Fi visit www.semperfifund.org
If you go
What: Steelman Triathlon
When: Sunday. Race starts at 7 a.m.
Where: Nockamixon State Park
More info: www.steelmantriathlon.com
Ellie
By AMANDA CREGAN
The Intelligencer
Dan Lasko doesn't run, swim and bike his way to the finish line because he has something to prove.
He does it because there is a brotherhood of injured Marines and soldiers just like him who know they will finish the race together.
Four years after losing his left leg in a roadside bomb explosion in Afghanistan, Lasko travels across the country to compete in triathlons.
The Bethlehem resident will join nearly 1,000 athletes on Sunday to compete in the fourth annual Steelman Triathlon at Nockamixon State Park.
The triathalon has grown from 300 participants to 1,000 in just three years. The race has become popular because it caters to different types of athletes.
The Sprint category of competition starts with an 800-yard swim and then athletes hop on a bike for a 12.8-mile trek through the park followed by a 3.1-mile run. The Olympic category participants double those distances.
All proceeds will benefit Make-A-Wish Foundation of Philadelphia and Susquehanna Valley.
“It is a race put on by triathletes for triathletes,” said Steelman Triathlon director Dale Winterhoff.
For Marine amputee Lasko, competing as a triathlete was not something he would have imagined as he lay confined to a military hospital bed wondering how he could ever walk again.
Lasko's road to the race began in 2004 when he was a 21-year-old Marine only a month into his first tour of duty in Afghanistan.
On April 24, Cpl. Lasko and his buddies from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit set out on a reconnaissance mission 60 miles north of Kandahar, a large province in southern Afghanistan.
Although it only took seconds for the two improvised explosive devices to explode under his vehicle and rip apart his left leg, Lasko says that afternoon moved in slow motion for him.
“I took the brunt of the force. I took the whole explosion,” he said. “I was awake but it was like slow motion. It happened so fast but it went so slow at the same time.”
With the bottom half of his left leg mangled and shredded beneath him, Lasko had to crouch in the Humvee as his fellow Marines defended themselves in a firefight.
Bullets rained down on them just after the explosives tore through their vehicle.
An hour after the blast, Lasko was fully aware and fully in pain as he was airlifted to a military hospital in Germany.
“I knew what was going on at the time,” he said. “I knew half my leg was gone and the pain I was going through. It was very, very painful.”
Lasko contracted the first of many infections to his open wounds in the helicopter out of Afghanistan. It was the first of many, which ultimately led to seven amputations to his left leg.
Lasko spent the next year in military hospitals, including Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Lasko quickly became reliant on pain pills and alcohol. He said he used them to cover the pain of post traumatic stress disorder more than the physical pain shooting up his leg.
He was among so many of the returning combat soldiers and Marines who find that the journey home can be emotionally crippling.
“A lot of guys just fall into a black hole,” he said. “I caught myself right before I fell into it.”
It wasn't his visible injuries but his struggles with PTSD that pushed Lasko into signing up for the newly formed triathalon team.
“I saw they were putting this together and I just had to do this,” said Lasko.
Fitted with a prosthetic, he ran his first race, a 10K, with a team of injured Marines.
Now as co-captain of Team Semper Fi, Lasko says the challenges he faces as a single amputee athlete sometimes pale in comparison to many of his teammates.
They are Marines, sailors and soldiers who face each day as a quadriplegic, double amputee or suffer from severe PTSD.
Although not all of them are able to compete in full, each one gives their all.
Lasko looks forward to a full life ahead of him. He shares a home in Bethlehem with his wife, Jessica, and is working toward with an associate's degree in criminal justice from Northampton Community College.
At age 25, the retired Marine and members of Team Semper Fi see each race as another victory.
“Not only do you fight for your country but you fight for your injured Marines,” he said. “We will finish the race together.”
Amanda Cregan can be reached at 215-538-6371 or acregan@phillyBurbs.com.
For more information and to help support the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund and Team Semper Fi visit www.semperfifund.org
If you go
What: Steelman Triathlon
When: Sunday. Race starts at 7 a.m.
Where: Nockamixon State Park
More info: www.steelmantriathlon.com
Ellie