Bobby McMullen - A True Badass Man

[fiatjeepdriver]

Mark leading Bobby down the Sea Otter course.
Photo by Forrest Arakawa

Video

Still standing
Published: August 20, 2005
By Mark Morical

Bobby McMullen will ride pretty much any terrain on his mountain bike.

But then, he never has a chance to see the trail he's riding.

"The ongoing joke is: ‘You would not ride this if you saw it,' '' McMullen says. "I'll try anything, but I'm not too proud."

In fact, little in this world seems to scare McMullen. That's no surprise, considering the myriad physical setbacks the 42-year-old massage therapist has encountered — and conquered — throughout his life.

McMullen, an avid skier, mountain biker and triathlete from Redding, Calif., is legally blind due to a degenerative eye disease. But that's only the beginning of his long list of impairments. McMullen — diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, the most serious form of the disease, at the age of 12 — has also undergone two kidney and pancreas transplants (which required years on dialysis), severely broken his left leg twice, and lost his right little toe.

A self-described "train wreck," McMullen, after receiving his second kidney/pancreas transplant in March 2003, began competing in mountain bike races and triathlons. The Alpine skier, who raced in the Paralympics in Nagano, Japan, in 1998, is in Central Oregon this weekend to race in the Sisters High Cascades Off-Road Triathlon at Suttle Lake on Sunday.

The event — which includes a one-kilometer swim, a 17-mile mountain bike ride and a six-mile trail run — starts at

9 a.m. and is part of the Xterra Points Series races.

McMullen has no vision in his left eye, but he says he can see through his right eye as if "looking through a roll of toilet paper, with the end smeared with Vaseline."

McMullen rides his bike — in much the same way he skis — behind a guide who shouts instructions to him. He will swim in Suttle Lake on Sunday with a kayaker guide, and Mark Yoakum of Sisters has volunteered to complete the run leg for McMullen, who is currently unable to run because of a nagging ankle injury.

McMullen says he struggles to swim in a straight line, often spending much longer in the water than his able-bodied counterparts. But mountain biking has come naturally.

He follows one or two bike lengths behind his guide.

"I use verbal commands and the shape in front of me," McMullen explains.

"I can hear them (the guide) shift and hear their bike rattle. I don't see any detail, but I can find where they're at. Hearing their voice gives me depth perception and direction better than anything else."

Using a guide, McMullen has piled up some impressive results in Xterra triathlons and mountain bike events, in both cross-country AND downhill bike races. He competes within his age group, and not in a "disabled" division.

This year, McMullen placed 14th at the Xterra Real Mountain Bike Challenge in Sacramento, Calif., in April, and he was 15th at the Xterra Western States Championship in Temecula, Calif., in May. At the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, Calif., in April, McMullen was 15th in the downhill out of 28 competitors and 96th in the cross-country out of 150 able-bodied men. At the Spring Thaw downhill mountain bike race in Ashland in May, McMullen finished seventh in the Sport Masters class.

If McMullen places in the top 10 at a National Off-Road Bicycling Association (NORBA) downhill event in Sonoma, Calif., on Sept. 10, he will qualify for NORBA Nationals in the downhill.

‘Blind in a month'

McMullen's success has drawn national media attention, and he has inspired countless athletes, both disabled and able-bodied.

"People say to me on a regular basis: ‘You inspire me,' " McMullen says. "That feeling alone is something I wish everybody could feel. That's how you make a difference. But I never set out to be an inspiration. I've just tried to live my life. There's a price I paid. My life is amazing. It's surreal."

During high school in Redding, McMullen was a standout jock, earning varsity letters in football, basketball, baseball and track. He played football for Shasta College, a community college in Redding, then transferred to Weber State in Utah to walk on to the Wildcats' intercollegiate ski team.

During his junior year at Weber State, in 1986, McMullen suffered a high-speed crash while skiing and broke the femur in his left leg in six places and destroyed his hip socket.

It was more than a year until he could walk again without a cane, but he soon recovered enough to try skiing again. He also entered law school at Cal Northern School of Law in Chico, Calif., after working in retail for a few years in the Bay Area and as an appraiser in Redding.

In 1992, McMullen reinjured his left leg while skiing, breaking his tibia and fibula in numerous places and tearing both his anterior cruciate ligament and his meniscus.

McMullen quit skiing for a while and focused on law school, but he soon had trouble seeing the blackboard in class. He went to an optometrist, thinking he just needed glasses, but the optometrist sent McMullen to an ophthalmologist, who diagnosed McMullen with proliferative diabetic retinopathy — a primary cause of vision loss in diabetic patients.

"I was blind in a month," McMullen recalls.

Laser treatments to stop the hemorrhaging in his eyes failed, but one last experimental surgery saved some of his sight, and he was left about 80 percent blind by the end of 1993.

McMullen says he never felt sorry for himself, and he quickly set out to adjust to being blind, though he planned on changing only what was necessary in his life.

"I've never had a depressed day in my life," McMullen states. "But I was ticked off, I was frustrated, I cried a little bit. I couldn't drive anymore. I couldn't see my friends from six feet away. But I knew I would continue to live my life the way I always had. I just had to do it a little differently. I'd find a way to get around. I'd find a way to ski again."

McMullen was soon racing behind a guide on the U.S. Disabled Ski Team, and he claimed the overall U.S. National Championships in both downhill and Super G for disabled athletes in 1996. But he became ill later that year, and in October he was diagnosed with kidney failure.

McMullen was hooked up to a dialysis machine three times per week while he awaited an organ donor. He got one in January of 1997, and he underwent the transplant for a new kidney and pancreas.

The longtime skier quickly got back to his passion, preparing to ski in the Nagano Paralympics in 1998.

But two weeks before, he ran into a wall while walking (the wall was the same color as the floor, and McMullen could not make out the contrast) and severely broke the little toe on his right foot. McMullen taped up the broken toe for support and skied in Nagano anyway. He crashed in all four events he entered.

"You've got to ski to win, and I did in all four races, and I crashed hard in all four races," McMullen recalls.

By this point his broken toe was so mangled that doctors determined it needed to be removed.

Then, in late 2000, McMullen's new organs began to fail and he was soon back on dialysis and the transplant list. This time, McMullen was forced to wait much longer to receive a transplant. After three grueling years on dialysis, he underwent surgery again for another new kidney and pancreas in March 2003.

After the transplant, McMullen knew right away how he would work himself back into shape.

"I've always had this mind-set about riding my bike," says the perpetually upbeat McMullen. "If I can get on a bike, I know things will be good: I'm going to get better, I'm going to thrive. It's a fitness tool, a recovery tool and a mental health tool."

Sponsors and respect

By January 2004, McMullen was racing his mountain bike with his longtime girlfriend, Therese Connor, a dialysis nurse whom he met during his second bout with kidney failure. Connor, 34, will also race in Sisters on Sunday.

With support from Connor, his six sisters and his parents, who still live in Redding, McMullen has found success in mountain biking and triathlon, even against able-bodied competitors. His determination to overcome such debilitating setbacks has helped him gain sponsorship from Santa Cruz Bicycles, Wilderness Trail Bikes and Fox Shox — and respect from the best in the sport.

"The places I've gotten to go, the people I've gotten to meet, that's my life: one incredible experience after another," McMullen says. "Part of the story happens to be that I'm a train wreck. But to have a pro mountain biker say, ‘You're my hero,' what do you say to that?"

[The Mad Wombat]

How does one ride a bike with balls that big? A sidecar perhaps?

[Semperfi]

Thats respectable right there. Every time you hear about someone like this it put things in perspective for you. For me, at least it does.

[Mike]

I can't beleive I passed this story up

Truly an inspiration

Putting it on the front page

*50 Points Awarded*

[Whitz End]

This guy is truely amazing. Seeing as our eyesight also plays a large role in our balance (allows us to distinguish up from down without gravity), its a truely sensational story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqyMRh4FAaU

(As for his balls? Well it is a Santa Cruz...)

[Mike]

Originally Posted by Whitz End

This guy is truely amazing. Seeing as our eyesight also plays a large role in our balance (allows us to distinguish up from down without gravity), its a truely sensational story.

(As for his balls? Well it is a Santa Cruz...)

Incredible