Injured ironman unbroken by gruelling racev

IF pain is prerequisite to becoming an Ironman, then Mark Young earned his stripes long before he crossed the finish line in Taupo late on Saturday night.
Young gritted his teeth and took the punishment, with the 56-year-old hobbling home in 15:02.33 for the 4km swim, 180km bike and 42.2km marathon run.
There's nothing unusual in that - several hundred others among the 1163-strong field limped home after him.
But few have been through what Young has in the past year after the Tauranga paint salesman shattered his leg in a freak accident on the eve of last year's Ironman New Zealand race.
Young survived Saturday's gruelling race on virtually no run training, unable to stand the pain of a shattered limb now held together by a titanium rod running the length of his lower left leg, pinned in with screws.
"I'm now going to write a 'how to' manual on finishing the Ironman on absolutely no run training," Young laughed.
After a 1:27.00 swim in Lake Taupo and a 7:02.07 double-loop ride, Young jogged the first 3km of the marathon until he'd cleared the build-up of spectators in town.
And then he walked the next 38km, just to get through it.
"It would have been unattainable for me otherwise - I'd only got clearance [prior to Christmas] to train but just hadn't been able to get out there and do it. The walking went beauty - once I got off that bike there was no way anything was going to stop me. I had all the time in the world to do it (he covered the 42km in 6:13.49) and I broke back into a jog about 1km from the finish. Coming down the finishing chute was one of the best feelings ever."
He also nursed a broken collarbone through Ironman which he injured when he fell off his bike during the Kaimai Classic multisport race 18 months ago.
"I had a plate put in my shoulder because the collarbone wouldn't heal and then somehow broke the plate. I had that removed and then a new one put in, so it's fair to say my surgeon (former Ironman Chris Dawe) has seen plenty of me in the past 12 months."
Young snapped his tibia and fibula bones just below the knee while out fishing with policewoman Sally Jones, who also did Ironman on Saturday, two weeks before last year's race.
Long-lining off Papamoa beach, Young was pushing off the shore in his kayak in a couple of feet of water when a rogue wave smashed his boat backwards.
"One leg was on the kayak and one was stuck in the sand and it just snapped. Sally dragged me up on to the sand and ran to call an ambulance while I rolled about in the sand. Devastated would be a mild way of putting how I felt."
Recovery has been slow but Dawe has told Young running will get easier once the titanium rod and screws had been removed.
"Weight bearing on the leg gets unbearable - it feels constantly like a stress fracture, which is apparently what happens when the bones bend and the rod stays rigid."
Young had the screws in the bottom of his leg taken out last year to encourage bone regrowth, and now plans to have all of the gadgetry taken out. "Sooner rather than later would be great. My aspirations are to do it properly."