New Havreite using virtual IRONMAN to fundraise for organizations

Havre Daily News Reporter Dane McGuire is looking to become one of the prestigious few to make it on to IRONMAN's VR Wall of Legends and raise some money for local and national nonprofits while he's doing it.

McGuire moved to Havre a few weeks ago from Illinois to take his position at Havre Daily News but all the while was participating in IRONMAN's virtual races, which he will need to do every single week throughout 2021 if he wants to make the wall. Only about 100 people made the wall last year.

The races are tracked through a Fitbit or similar device and submitted to IRONMAN VR, the organization's Virtual Club, and if McGuire is successful he will be one of a relative few people with a disability to make the wall.

McGuire, who has moderate cerebral palsy, said he hopes to turn this personal goal into a way to raise money for some nonprofit organizations, including Cerebral Palsy Foundation that provides help for people like him, BodyBuilding.com's LIFT LIFE Foundation, which finds and renovates school gyms in underprivileged areas, and National Alliance on Mental Illness - NAMI - Havre.

He said he's hoping people will be willing to donate a dollar for every mile he competes in a given race. Depending on the kind of race he's running that could be anywhere from 16 to 70-plus miles, though he said any donations, regardless of size, will, of course, be accepted.

"I have eight months of this challenge left. and that's a long time," he said. "So I wanted to do good and turn it into a fundraised for not just one but many organizations that mean something to me."

McGuire said he's still in the process of setting up a proper fundraising account with Independence Bank, but people looking to donate can go to his PayPal at https://paypal.me/nathanielmcguire1772?locale.x=en_US . He asked that all donors include a note with their donation, labeling payment as IRONMAN Fundraiser.

He said people can also track his race completions at his IRONMAN VR Profile/Dashboard at https://app.ironmanvirtualclub.com/en/profile/5ec8b32a79db210006d3eb7a and signing up as a user of the site.

While he's only been in town a short while, McGuire said, he has plenty of experience with situational depression and anxiety, and mental health is something he cares very much about, which made NAMI an obvious choice for him when it came to organizations he wants to support.

In fact, he said, his experience dealing with mental health issues is a big part of what spurned him to take fitness and health so seriously.

Dane McGuire's father, Dave McGuire, who has been in a supporting role for his son and his exercise-related activities for many years, said he was the one who originally suggested fitness as a way of dealing stress, depression and anxiety.

"I've been through the wringer a few times, so I told him the things that work for me, which are eat right, exercise, meditate," he said.

McGuire said his son took the fitness aspect of this three-legged stool approach very seriously, and his son has become an inspiration and he's very proud of him.

"It makes me want to get out and do better," he said.

McGuire said his son always wanted to be an athlete, that he participated in wrestling, Special Olympics basketball; sled hockey, martial arts, and track.

But, he said, his son's condition has made his life very complicated at times, and not being able to do the things he wanted to was a huge weight on his son's mind, but once he got into weightlifting he took it as far as he could. But COVID-19 made things far more difficult, having shut down gyms across the U.S.

"He was looking to carry on with the exercise because he saw what it did for him mentally, physically and emotionally," he said.

He said after some time off, his son found IRONMAN and their virtual races, which he became enamored with, and his quest to make the Wall of Legends has made him push himself to his limits. But even before the challeng started, he was already racing on a special trike.

"The first few times he did it it was a 24-hour affair and I don't know if I've seen anyone put that much effort and energy and exertion into any physical activity," McGuire said.

He said his son has had to go through an enormous number of surgeries, including the need for some metal pins in his right leg, as well as other difficulties to get where he is, but they've always taken it in stride.

"When they say he's an iron man, it's really titanium," he said.

McGuire said he's glad he and his wife have been able to support his life, but knows that many other families aren't as lucky to have the financial resources they have and he's glad his son is using his personal goals to help others.

Dane McGuire said, despite the large distance he travels, keeping up with his goals is largely a matter of consistency and mental fortitude as much as it is a matter of strength and endurance.

McGuire said this is the reason that, despite the last four months of nonstop races, he's pretty comfortable with where he is.

"Once you do enough of these, you kinda hold yourself to a standard," he said.

He said he'd managedlast year to complete a race of every length the Wall of Legends challenge would throw at him, including the special seven-day 140-plus-mile championship race coming up this October, so he knows what he's in for.

McGuire said it's important to take breaks and recover from events like this, but he never lies still for too long and says stagnation is the worst thing that can happen for him.

Despite the racing, he said, he still does weightlifting which, like his father, he said has been a great boon for his mental health.

"Weightlifting centered me, it took all my anxiety, all my aggression, it took it out of me in a positive way," he said.

McGuire said the program he uses to stay on point with his nutrition was developed by Andy Frisella, a YouTuber and St. Louis native, who incorporated reading and random acts of kindness into the plan to create a more holistic approach to taking care of ones self.

He said he also takes inspiration from runner David Goggins and author John "Jocko" Willink, a pair of military veterans who try to help people develop self-discipline skills. McGuire said he recommends their work, which has helped him in his social life as well as with his mental and physical health.

McGuire said this challenge brings a sense of accomplishment that makes it all worth it in the end, but that doesn't mean it hasn't also brought hardship.

"There will literally be blood, sweat and tears," he said.

McGuire said his condition makes injury, mostly due to falls, something of an inevitability, but he's gotten used to it over the years, resulting in a higher-than-average level of pain tolerance.

"It's not a matter if I'm going to fall, it's a matter of when and how many times," he said.

He also said moving to Havre in the midst of this challenge was a bit of an ordeal, between packing, adjusting to a new job, and being far away from his support system back in Illinois.

But, he said, the people of Havre have been accommodating of his condition and have made the transition easier.

"They've all been wonderful," he said.

McGuire said he hopes his personal journey will inspire other people with cerebral palsy and tell them that they can accomplish great things despite the difficulty.

"If you want to, you can do it," he said.