Tim Sweeney finished the Breathe For Cystic Fibrosis four-mile race Sunday in Westport. That may not sound like news, until you realize the Fairfield man underwent a double-lung transplant last November and doubted a day like this would ever come.
"It's sort of the ultimate challenge,'' said Sweeney, who is a personal trainer at Equinox Fitness in Darien. "In my head, I always wanted to do something like this and I was never able to." Sweeney suffers from cystic fibrosis, and underwent the transplant on Nov. 10, 2009. Doctors told him to resume exercise six weeks later. Instead, it was only three weeks before he started preparing for Sunday's race.
Sweeney's wife, Beth, who organized the race, said part of her motivation was to encourage her husband to return to exercise. "Part of the reason we're doing this is to give back,'' Beth says. "We don't want to forget where we came from. The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation does a lot for us. But I also wanted to give him something to work for. I didn't want him to wait for the New York City Marathon."
The October race is Sweeney's ultimate goal. When he had the surgery, his physician asked him to plan on running the NYC Marathon the following year. It seemed like a startling request for somebody who needed two new lungs, but Sweeney is determined to make it to New York. Sunday's race was an important step in that process.
Sweeney's journey has been arduous. When he began training, he walked on a treadmill and initially topped out at about 3.5 mph. He gradually increased his endurance and by mid-January was able to run a mile without stopping. "I had to stop because of these,'' he said, grabbing his legs "instead of these,'' pointing to his lungs.
Sweeney finished Sunday's race in 55:33. Seeing him get to the starting line made Beth emotional. "I honestly never thought I'd see him run his first race,'' Beth says.
Jeffrey Townsend of Hamden won the men's race Sunday in 26:43. Amy Tkoch of Stratford was the first woman and second overall in 29:18. There were 82 finishers. Complete results are available here.
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