Wheeling is an incredible feeling for all
Published: September 24, 2004
Hers is the face of joy.
Arms thrust skyward, head cocked to one side in the manner of the late great runner Steve Prefontaine, red hair shining, blue eyes dancing, Tammy Bryan announces her arrival at another finish line. Put your fingers in your ears, because this can get loud.
“Whoooooooooooooooooo!”
“When she wins an award,” Wayne Bryan says of his only child, “you’d think she won the Olympics. Everbody knows it.”
Wayne and Bonnie, his wife, beam as Tammy shows off the trophies arranged on the kitchen table of their Kewanee home. A first-place spike from Railroad Days in Galesburg and a cowbell from the New Windsor Rodeo Run stand out among the more traditional trophies, medals and ribbons.
Forget the awards, though. The Bryans never imagined competing in races would become a family activity in which all three could participate.
Wayne took up running nearly a decade ago for the most practical of reasons.
“I gave up cigarettes, started eating candy and got fat,” he says.
Running took off the weight. Bonnie soon joined him and before long they were part of the cult of weekend road races.
Tammy went along to watch and cheer. She can’t run. Due to a congenital heart defect related to Down’s Syndrome, Tammy, 31, struggles even to walk a city block.
But her competitive fires burn hot as an asphalt road in July. Wayne and Bonnie had no idea of the beautiful monster they unleashed five years ago, when they entered Tammy in the Atkinson Heritage Days one-mile race. Wayne ran and pushed the wheelchair, Tammy rode, and the cheers at the finish line surpassed their wildest dreams.
“She became very competitive,” Bonnie says of her daughter. “We’d never seen that.”
“I like to go fast,” Tammy says.
“And she doesn’t like it if you walk,” Bonnie says. “She doesn’t even like you to stop for a drink of water.”
For that reason, Tammy now carries a water bottle for Wayne during races. But she’s not keen on him slowing down to partake. During a recent
race, after Wayne imbibed an early sip, Tammy took back the bottle and told him, “That’s it till the finish line.”
Bonnie catches her own share of Tammy’s fire. The mother is accustomed to her husband and daughter passing her during races.
“She’s always telling me, ‘C’mon, pick it up!’ when they go by,” Bonnie says.
Tammy likes hills, too. Wayne doesn’t, as you would expect, but any misgivings he might have about the extra labor he endures are wiped out by love for Tammy.
“He’s a wonderful person to enlighten her to this sport,” Joe Mareno says.
Mareno is mayor of East Moline and chairman of the seventh annual Quad Cities Marathon. The event also includes a half-marathon - 13.1 miles - in which Wayne and Tammy will compete for the second time Sunday.
Mareno tries to position himself at the finish line to greet each of the 2,500 competitors. Last year, when he saw Wayne and Tammy coming, he ordered the official finish banner - the one traditionally broken by the race winner - to be unfurled so Tammy could experience the thrill of breaking through it. A picture of that moment adorns the promotional brochure for this weekend’s race.
“So many of us complain about our aches and pains,” Mareno says. “We wish we’d run faster, or wish for this or that. But here’s Wayne, a person content to participate in that form, and obviously Tammy loves and appreciates every moment. Watching Tammy participate is one of those things … there are tears in my eyes. She’s a champion.”
You doubt him? Get this. Tammy’s trademark red hair, which once flowed down her back, is Dutchboy short now. She up and decided one day last month to get it cut. Fourteen inches came off. Tammy donated the shorn tresses to Locks of Love, an organization that uses human hair to create wigs for children who have lost theirs to battles with cancer.
Though the Bryan family has been racing for several years now, Wayne and Tammy continue to be amazed by how they’ve been embraced. Wayne was nervous the first time he pushed Tammy in a race, but he needn’t have been. Runners tend to be as selfless as they are obsessed.
Only once, Wayne says, have they encountered a shred of resentment. He won’t say where the incident occurred, but a woman complained to the race director after finishing second in her age division to Wayne, Tammy and the wheelchair. Wayne says he understood and offered to give the woman the first-place trophy, but she refused.
Otherwise, they’ve heard nothing but encouragement and cheers, not only from the spectators but the competitors. On road courses that follow an out-and-back format, it has become common for leading runners to high-five Tammy and shout encouragement as they go by.
Runners know a personal best when they see one. They respect competitive spirit, wherever it resides.
Mayor Mareno recently asked the Bryans if he could have the honor of pushing Tammy for a couple of blocks this weekend.
Fine, Wayne says, “as long as nobody passes her. She hates to get passed, especially in the last two blocks.”
“Oh, yeah!” Tammy chimes in. “Get out of my way! Here we come!”
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