Cancer can't stop Tampa Ironman

By Joey Knight, Times Staff Writer
Published October 12, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Ken Helle] Chad McLeod, a 25-year-old Tampa resident, does a light running workout on the Upper Tampa Bay Trail on Sunday while getting ready to compete in the Ford Ironman World Championship in Hawaii on Oct. 13.

Sometimes, it runs. For miles at a time.

Then, it goes in for chemotherapy.

The voice of defiance, which betrays a subtle north Florida drawl, is too modest to mention this. But its doctor does.

You heard right, Tampa-based oncologist Sam Agresta says over his cell phone, Chad McLeod ran the Gasparilla 15-kilometer race on a cold Saturday morning last February, then headed across town to Moffitt Cancer Center for his regularly scheduled chemo treatment that afternoon.

"It's absolutely incredible what he can do," Agresta said.

If all goes as planned Saturday in Kona, Hawaii, Agresta may be seeking a more powerful adjective to supplant "incredible."

Almost a year to the day after surgery to remove what had been a softball-sized tumor from his pelvis, McLeod, 25, will put his cancer-free, 150-pound body through a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile run at the Ford Ironman World Championship.

"Going through cancer treatment, it's intense and it's grueling," said McLeod, a former Tampa-based staffer for Sen. Mel Martinez, and now an assistant to Martinez's state director. "And I know in an Ironman it's physically and mentally tough, but I think I can handle it."

He'll have 17 hours to conquer the course, which stands to reason.

Those closest to him say he's as inspiring as the race day is long.

"You'd be shocked to see what he looked like even six months ago," Agresta said. "I mean, I never treated a person as aggressively as him."

Reared mainly in Polk County, McLeod was a distance runner for the track team at Suwannee High in Live Oak - where the Panhandle and Peninsula intersect - before earning a public relations degree in 2004 from the University of Florida.

A non-drinking, non-smoking son of a police chief, he moved to Tampa upon joining Martinez's staff and found an ideal running path at the Upper Tampa Bay Trail near his Citrus Park apartment. Nagging back pain, however, prompted him to seek help.

Originally, doctors thought it might be kidney stones. More thorough tests revealed McLeod had Ewing's sarcoma, a rare type of bone cancer whose peak incidence typically is between ages 10 and 20.

"I had never abused my body. And of course, with Ewing's it's one of those things where they really don't know what causes it," McLeod said.

According to Agresta, if the cancer hasn't spread, there's an 80-percent survival rate for five years. McLeod's cancer had been confined to the pelvis tumor, which required high doses of chemotherapy and radiation to shrink it so it could be surgically removed at Moffitt on Oct. 17, 2006.

Most of his chemo was handled on an outpatient basis, though a few hospitalizations - typically lasting a week - were needed. During the process, his immune system was battered. He lost all his hair and, according to Agresta, virtually all his muscle mass. His mother, Nancy, recalls his mouth being infested with sores, making the '05 Christmas dinner barely appetizing.

"I did not hear Chad complain one time during the process - the treatment, the recovery, the surgery," Nancy said. "As we sought to encourage and inspire him, he in turn was an inspiration to us."

He met Agresta, himself a triathlete, shortly after the diagnosis. McLeod asked the doctor what he could do during treatment. Agresta asked McLeod what he liked to do. First, they talked about running. Then, Agresta employed the "t" word.

"At that point I probably thought he was crazy, because I had never considered (a triathlon) when I was healthy much less here I am going through these treatments," McLeod recalled.

"So we talked about it for a little while and then I said, "Okay, I think I could do that.'"

His first triathlon was the St. Anthony's (1,500-meter swim, 40-kilometer bike, 10k run) in late April in St. Petersburg. McLeod finished in 2:50.40, placing 12th in the male novice division. Two other Olympic-distance triathlons, as well as a "half Ironman," followed.

His preparation for Hawaii included 15-20 hours of weekly training, with his days typically starting before 5 a.m. At the Ironman, McLeod will navigate the undertow of Kailua-Kona Bay and bike across a lava desert, but never fully get out of the proverbial woods.

Statistically, Agresta says, the odds are "pretty good" of the cancer returning, though he dismisses those odds. McLeod, meantime, emits a vibe of inner peace, accompanied by a profession of his Christian faith.

"Sometimes we look at something and it seems impossible to get over or get through, but we just have to keep pushing," he said. "You never know what will happen."

Joey Knight can be reached at (813) 226-3350 or jknight@sptimes.com.

Ford Ironman World Championship

Local male qualifiers

Name; Hometown; Age

Arthur Halttunen; St. Petersburg; 57

Jennifer Hutchison; St. Petersburg; 40

Marcos Alegre; Largo; 71; consultant

Marni Rakes; New Port Richey; 25

Dean Cosgrove; Tarpon Springs; 47

Chad McLeod; Tampa; 25

Ryan Stoffer; Tampa; 31

[Last modified October 11, 2007, 17:40:14]