East Valley Victories: Triathlete will have to sit this one out

I have a friend who likes to run, swim and ride his bike in succession all on the same day. You guessed it: He is a triathlon competitor.

Marc Rubin had planned to be part of this weekend's Ford Ironman Arizona Triathlon, but that isn't going to happen. Lately, things haven't gone too well for the Scottsdale attorney in his bid to make it to Kona and the big one - the Ironman World Championship next fall in Hawaii.

Last fall, while competing in the bike portion of an Ironman event in Dallas, Rubin was run off the road by a fellow cyclist.

He suffered a broken collarbone and was on the mend for several weeks.

Returning to full-fledged training in January, he set his sights on the Ironman Arizona.

Then it happened again - another bike accident.

This time Rubin and training partner Billy Dean were hit March 15 by an SUV that turned right into the bike lane on Campbell Avenue, near 29th Street, in Phoenix.

Rubin suffered a severely separated shoulder.

"I have no doubt I just used one of my nine lives," Rubin said the day after the accident. "You know the saying 'I feel like I have been run over?' There is something to that. I am definitely out of next month's Ironman."

Even without Rubin, there will be about 2,400 athletes from 30 countries and 47 states expected to participate in the event this Sunday.

As for Rubin, after the accident the following was included in an e-mail message to friends: "All I can say is I will not give up and some day soon I will make it to Kona."

But I stand by what I told him a few days after his March accident: Maybe you should switch to splash-and-dash events because this cycling thing just isn't working out.

Rubin's "Tri Harder" radio program can be heard every Tuesday from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. on KXAM (1310 AM) or via the Internet at Triharderradio.com.