10/03/2025
Huge congratulations to our very own Shane Metternick (CDCA, QMHS), Case Manager Supervisor, on completing his first full Ironman! 🏊♂️🚴♂️🏃♂️ 140.6 miles of pure endurance, grit, and resilience. What a monumental victory! Your dedication, strength, and perseverance inspire us all. 👏💪
For Shane, this incredible journey mirrors his path to sobriety: full of challenges, breakthroughs, and triumphs. Here’s his story, in his own words 👇
"Like sobriety, doing Ironman triathlon is a path filled with every emotion humanly possible that, for me, has been riddled with broken bones, overwhelming hardships, and personal triumphs. Never did I think accomplishing one of these endurance events would be achievable.
The modalities that have made sobriety possible and successful were also the same that made completing a 140.6-mile race possible—including peer support, determination, grit, and one of the most important things: humor.
The thought of competing in one of these events goes back to my adolescence, some 19 years ago. This was the mark of the unfortunate start of a much darker road down the path of my eventual 15 years of addiction to drugs and alcohol.
Nineteen years ago, during my consequential two-week stay in Wood County Juvenile Detention Center for in-school suspension, I was given a book called From Addict to Ironman. At the time, it seemed like an easy way to burn a couple of grueling hours. The book is an inspiring story (with the right mindset) about overcoming addiction and traumatic experiences—utilizing Ironman triathlon to spread the word about addiction and as an alternative to substance use.
At that point in my life, nobody could tell me what I couldn’t do—and surely not what I could do. Little did I know this book would become more of a roadmap to my own sobriety journey 15 years later.
Eventually, I ended up on the doorstep of Racing for Recovery, battered and broken from making a long series of poor choices when I couldn’t see a way out of the darkness. I now have a second home at Racing for Recovery and the ability to share my experience with others who also struggle to find their path and a way out of the darkness.
Special thanks to my family and friends.".
