資深義工林文釗之子兒子Gary Lin在2015年十二月六日完成了人生的夢想，賽完鐵人賽 Ironman Western Australia 2015，Gary賦予這次競賽更深的意義，為癌友籌款，此次共為新希望華人癌症關懷基金會籌募超過一萬美元。以下為其父在Gary賽前賽後的心情日記.

2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bicycle ride, 26.2 mile Marathon run.
The cut off is 17 hours. Busselton, Western Australia. 12/6/2015.

12/4, Friday, arrived Perth, Australia. Picked up rental van. Miraculously, luggage all fit in. The odd size bicycle, knocked down in a huge case, squeezed in by one centimeter.

Ate lunch in the car, need to hurry down to Busselton to register.

4 pm, Busselton, Fat Duck bike shop, arranged the reassembling matter, checked all gears, etc. rushed to the city park near the beach to report and register. Packages and packages of bags, instructions, detailed maps, then a “weigh-in” station to capture your weight. As the race will consume 10K calories or more. They need some medical info, etc.
Drove 25 miles to Smiths Beach Resort, a beach resort. At night, I can hear the ocean’s landing.

12/5, SAT, Gary went back to check the bike and made sure the bike will be delivered to the designated place with proper ID. Gary’s number is 489. Also, test-swam the ocean route a little bit with the wet suit he borrowed from his friend. And studied the course, the transition points, the drop off points, etc.

He came home to rewrap his food. The only time he can eat is during bicycling. The jersey is equipped with many back pockets. He carefully calculated each bite size, calories needed to replenish the lost energy, the wasted foils/wrappers will need to be stowed in one of the pockets, keeping the streets/routes clean. And the various drinks he needs at various points. During the race, whatever you eat or drink is your own business, packages of food, drink, transition clothes, shoes, all need to be dropped off at the right spot with the proper ID.

12/6, SUN, We baby-sat Van in the early morning. MJ and Jason went with Gary at 4 am. The 2.4 mile swim started at 6am. Over one-thousand competitors. 30 to 50 kayaks, and ski jets patrol the swimming route around the longest jetty in the ocean, made noise to scare away the undesirable animals such as sharks. Drones were deployed, in action to oversee and scout from above. In case (very rarely), they find any sharks, they will fire a “sonic cannon” to disperse them. Everything went smoothly, every competitor was identified and monitored by a chip they carry throughout the race.

MJ and Jason saw Gary finish the swim at 7:20 am, quite a few dropped out of the race, they were pulled out of the freezing water, must have been 30 degrees or less, as the morning temperature was 50, raining, 19 mph winds and nasty waves. Over one-thousand swimmers jumped into the ocean at the same time, vying for the shortest route to get ahead, an overwhelming shock to the new comers as lots of Olympians were fighting to break the record and win the prize money.

Gary changed clothes, shoes etc. picked up his food, drinks, etc. then went on to the 112 mile ride. About from Walnut Creek to Sacramento and back. At various spots, he replenished the food, drinks he prepared days before. Sports nutrition is a big field. Gary ate like an astronaut with artificial nutrition, calories, tooth-paste like stuff as we’ve seen in the movies.

We saw him at the transition point when he finished the bike ride at 2:30 pm. Clothes, shoes, changed, etc.

The marathon was run on a very long beach course, back and forth four times. So we can see the runners four times (actually eight times) during the race. We timed his run and cheered him up each time. He was in good spirits and running at a steady pace. We witnessed almost all the competitors, except those professionals, men and women. They finished the race before most competitors started the marathon. All walks of life, male, female, American, Aussie, Japanese, Chinese, black, white, yellow, etc. young and old, small, skinny, big and fat, different running styles, many limping along (definitely need a new pair of shoes), struggling, debating, to run or not to run? We cheered one “John , you are looking great,” we can see runner’s name under the number, he replied “thank you for lying.” Various uniforms, I like the Jersey that says “anything is possible,” the pant prints “tri it.” “We lost” Gary at one point, Jason went to the station, and the guy said, Gary passed the 27K mark 20 minutes ago… 26.2 miles is 42K. So we knew he was OK…… until after the finish line, he told me he had bad diarrhea 5 times during the running due to his first time heavy duty nutrition intake. So he had to “disappear” five times, lost 20, 30 minutes. That explained his uneven pace according to our calculation.

We lined up around 8 pm at the finish line. A long red-carpet stretch with a huge screen to show the runners coming in. And a small stadium for the visitors, families to witness the excitement of the finishers fulfilling their dreams. The music was very upbeat, the announcer was incredibly high pitched as in a boxing ring. From the chip, he knew every finishing runner’s name and some bio. At 8:10pm, he announces “Gary Lin, you are an Ironman” loud and clear, into the clouds when Gary approached and passed the gate with the blinking, shining timer showing 14:10:33.

Two volunteers wrapped him in an ironman blanket that is his trophy, and put a medallion around his neck, and accompanied him to the medical station. 15 minutes later, we saw him out of the other gate in the dark.

I can hear the announcer’s voice, a really old guy (younger than me), who came in ahead of Gary, his 12th Ironman race in 12 years at this same location. A couple, husband and wife, arrived right after Gary, together. The blinking, the screen, the music, the announcement, the cheers, continued until 11pm.

Van, one year and seven months is an iron baby. She was there for her daddy 8am to 9pm, no rest, only a 15 minute nap in the stroller, running after the seagulls all day long, waving to Gary, all the way to the finish line.

Jason, Gary Cornell’s roommate is an iron friend. He flew from Boston to Dubai (17 hours), then another 17 hours to Perth, rented a car, drove three hours, first-time on right-sided driver seat car in the late-late night, three hour nap, woke up at 4am to see Gary jumping into the ocean along with over one-thousand heads and bodies. He said he’s never seen anything like it.
MJ, an iron wife, always believed in Gary’s ability to finish his dream. Never showed her nerves until Gary “disappeared,” she told me she just sent Jason to the station to check, in case Gary was injured or??? Her worry was the same as mine.

We are glad and very grateful that Gary fulfilled his dream.
Many typos in this quick write-up, the wifi here is not the best, I cannot Google. So please excuse the incorrect spelling, etc.

This morning, we walked to the beach, as Gary said we came to the edge of the universe, as we gazed from near to far, into the Indian Ocean, nothing in between, nothing really matters, all the way to the South Pole.

12/7/2015.