Giving life to final dreams

When her mother was diagnosed with cancer nine years ago, Whitefish resident Courtney Laabs trained for an Iron Man triathlon as an outlet for her grief. But when her mother entered hospice care two weeks before the race, Laabs knew she had to drop out.

All these years later, Laabs dedicated herself to competing in the race again, this time in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho. She and childhood friend Brooke Rinehart spent 10 months training for the day. But, as Laabs put it, life has a funny way of working out. Just three days before she was set to compete in the Aug. 21 event, she again had to cancel. This time because she’s going to be a mother.

“It was just as easy a decision, but the first time it was for something so sad, and this is for something so happy,” she said.

Laabs chose to meet Rinehart at the finish line instead of crossing it with her.

An Iron Man is a long distance triathlon, composed of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run, done without a break and in that order. The body goes into a very dangerous catatonic state during the race, and the recovery process after isn’t easy. Competing in such a demanding event can be harmful to a developing fetus, Laabs said.

“My inclination was that I was still going to finish the race. But I talked to experts in the field and Iron Man coaches, and when they tell me I shouldn’t then I know it’s serious. Immediately when I heard those things I knew my decision was going to be an easy one,” she said.

This year, Laabs and Rinehart dedicated their Iron Man training to Dream Foundation, a national dream-granting organization for terminally ill adults. They shared blog posts with training updates on their website, irondreams.org, and money donated to their cause went straight to Dream.

Laabs was inspired to connect with Dream early on while training for the race the second time.

“I had a very spiritual experience on one of my first training runs and I realized I wanted to do something greater than just getting to the finish line,” she said. “I knew I wanted to support a cause.”

Thinking back to her mom’s last days, she searched for groups that try to make those final moments of life as good as they can be. Then she found Dream.

“Their whole purpose, giving life to final dreams, really resonated with me.”

Dream fulfills about 2,500 dreams per year, ranging from taking a dying mother and her kids to Disneyland to giving a kayak to a man who can’t afford it so he can explore Flathead Lake, both of which are dreams that Laabs personally delivered.

“You can’t quantify how important it is to people,” Dream CEO Kisa Heyer said. “Courtney and Brooke have been taking fundraising to a whole new level. We just think it’s so amazing that they are turning their donations to us. So many people will be the beneficiaries of this. It’s really quite inspiring.”

Laabs and Rinehart both grew up in San Diego and Laabs ended up in Whitefish after meeting her husband, Kelly, on Whitefish Lake. Rinehart recounted being convinced by Laabs to do the race during a relaxing float down the Salmon River in Idaho. She forgot about it until Laabs reminded her the following week, and by then Laabs had already registered both of them for the race.

Rinehart said she’s “lucky to be dragged along” by her friend. Until a few months ago, she’d never done a triathlon, and after moving to Alabama for her job with the Air Force, the two have had to train separately.

They hired an Iron Man coach out of Utah, who worked with them via a workout app and routine phone calls. Some weeks consisted of more than 25 hours of training, with the longest days being nine or 10 hours of hard work. Workouts were split by event, swimming, biking and running, with supplemental weight training too.

Going into the weekend of the race, Rinehart said she hoped to not take things too seriously and enjoy herself.

“I think the biggest goal is just to have fun with it and walk away with 20 new friends,” Rinehart said. “Probably my secondary goal to never let Courtney talk me into anything again.”

Laabs’ surprise came after she’d been told it was medically impossible for her to get pregnant, so she and husband Kelly planned to meet with a fertility specialist after the race. When she told him their dog, Fenway, would have a sibling, Kelly was worried she’d picked up a puppy without telling him.

“It’s bittersweet for me,” she said. “My goal of accomplishing an Iron Man is still alive, I’ll just be doing it with my child watching me. It’s just amazing how the world works.”