www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Friday, September 14, 2012 · 40 Ironman competitor shows his mettle after crash By Jon Kuiperij BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR To complete an Ironman triathlon event, participants must swim 3.86 kilometres, cycle 180.25 km and run 42.2 km. That wasn't even the most gruelling part of last weekend's Ironman event in Madison, Wisconsin for Brett Titus, the seventh-place finisher in the men's 50-54 division. Just past the midway point of the cycling segment, the 49-year-old Oakville resident was coasting down a hill at approximately 40 kilometres an hour. As Titus reached behind the seat for his water bottle, he hit a pothole in the road. The front tire of Titus' bicycle went sideways, sending Titus flying over the handlebars and skidding across the pavement. At least, that's what Titus has been told by spectators and fellow competitors. Titus himself doesn't remember a thing about the accident. "Literally, the first recollection I have of that event is waking up and I'm riding my bike. I looked at my shoulder and thought `Oh, I think I've crashed,'" Titus said Wednesday, three days after the race. "I can't explain how I got back on my bike and how I got clipped into my pedals and "The first recollection I all of that stuff." have of that event is The crash left Titus with waking up and I'm scrapes and bruises, primarriding my bike... I can't ily on his left shoulder and his face, but no broken explain how I got bones. Titus said he might back on my bike and not have gotten back on the how I got clipped into bike had he been fully cohermy pedals and all of ent at the time. that stuff." "I really don't know what happened on the ground. Brett Titus There is a rule that if you're assisted in any way, you're disqualified, so it's quite possible no one helped me," said Titus, who owns the Bean There Café in downtown Oakville -- a popular meeting place for runners and long-distance swimmers. "After the race, I was talking to this one girl and I asked `Why would anyone let me back on the bike, especially if I was unconscious?' I have to say probably the way it went down is that I wasn't actually out cold on the pavement. I must have just had my head scrambled and was wandering a bit aimlessly. Then I got back on my bike, which is such an PHOTO SUBMITTED DOWN BUT NOT OUT: The scrapes and bruises on Brett Titus's face and shoulder tell the story of his experience at an Ironman event last weekend in Wisconsin. Titus finished seventh in his age division at the race despite a nasty fall off his bicycle that left him bloodied and incoherent. ingrained thing, I suppose." After Titus fully regained his bearings, already aboard his bike, he felt good enough to continue. A couple of flat tires later, Titus finished the bicycle portion in six hours, four minutes (he was on pace for five hours at the time of his crash) and was 19th in his division entering the run. Titus then managed to pass 12 of his peers during the run, completing the 42.2 km course in three hours, 40 minutes. His overall time in the Ironman was 11 hours, about 35 minutes short of third place in his age category. A top-three finish would have earned Titus a berth in next month's Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. The Ironman Wisconsin event was just Titus' second triathlon. A former Boston Marathon participant, Titus was strictly a long-distance runner until a couple years ago, when friends coaxed him into training for the Ironman. Despite missing out on qualifying for this year's world championships, not to mention his horrific crash, Titus is undetered. He's already signed up for next summer's Ironman event in Mont-Tremblant, Que. "It's become a social thing," Titus said. "And when I found out how competitive I could be with it, I took off from there." -- Jon Kuiperij can be followed on Twitter @Beaversports Defence keys OSC U16 boys' win at Concord soccer tournament Matteo Cesario allowed just one goal in five games to backstop the Oakville Soccer Club's under-16 C boys' team to the championship at last weekend's Concord Grape & Wine Soccer Tournament. Oakville won the title with a shootout victory over Kleinberg-Nobleton Red. Marc Peters, Victor Chung, Christian Hayes and Cesario scored in the shootout while Kleinberg-Nobleton scored just twice. Cesario was named tournament MVP. Earlier in the competition, Oakville tied Whitby 1-1, blanked Concord 3-0, edged Aurora B 1-0 and downed North Bay 1-0. Hayes scored three times in those four games with Krystof Sznajder, Sean Brooks and Peters also finding the net. Whitby B and Kleinberg-Nobleton were both higher-ranked squads than Oakville in the Terra power rankings for boys' 1996 teams entering the tournament. Kleinberg was ranked 29th, Whitby B was 47th and Oakville C was 108th as of Sept. 4. Also contributing to Oakville's win were Arman Adel, Andrew Bai, Jonathan Duong, Brent Erb, Hamza Farooque, Alexander Gutheil, Spencer Lee, Mitchell Pratt, Elias Toumeh, J.D. Ulanowski, Graham Wright and Alexi Zenin. The team is coached by Richard Pratt, Greg Murphy, David Wright and Josie AltobelliHayes. CONCORD CHAMPS: The Oakville Soccer Club's U16 C boys' team won the championship at last weekend's Concord Grape & Wine Soccer Tournament.