Eric McElvenny of Bethel Park was 132 miles into the 140.6 miles of the Ironman World Championships in beautiful Kona, Hawaii.
Every bone, muscle, piece of skin on his body hurt. He couldn’t take one more step.
“I am in physical pain,” McElvenny said as he described that moment to the room full of veterans gathered at Rivers Casino Pittsburgh on the North Shore. “Every major muscle group is cramping up. My hips hurt. My feet hurt. My left foot hurt.
“My right foot didn’t feel like anything, because I don’t have my right leg below the knee,” he explained. “So I don’t have to worry about getting blisters on my right foot, which is a win. I had run out of energy. I took off my prosthetic.”
After a short rest, he tried to put it back on, but the stump on his leg was swollen.
“Have you thought about a time in your life that you wanted to quit something so bad?” he said at the annual Veterans Breakfast Club celebration breakfast. “I had people tracking my progress from all over the country. It was overwhelming. It was hard to see anything positive at that moment because I was in the midst of a challenge.”
Everybody faces challenge, whether it is the service, at home or in relationships, McElvenny, a retired U.S. Marine Corps captain, told the nearly 500 guests at the breakfast.
The Veterans Breakfast Club started with one breakfast and 30 World War II veterans in 2008 at the Crowne Plaza Suites Pittsburgh South in Bethel Park.
The idea to bring veterans together was that of Todd DePastino, executive director of the club, which creates communities of listening around veterans and their stories.
DePastino, a Mt. Lebanon resident, began hosting events around the Pittsburgh area, 35 breakfasts a year.
He said he wanted to do one where they could all be together sometime close to Veterans Day. That is how the event at the casino came to be.
‘Essential part of history’
In addition to breakfasts, the club holds weekly programs online and in person during which veterans of all eras, ages, and branches of service can share their stories. The events create closely knit communities of listening, and by recording the stories, they ensure that living history will never be forgotten, said DePastino, an author and historian who is not a veteran.
“Veterans stories are so much an essential part of history,” he said.
This was the second year for the event to be held at the casino.
“This event is so special because it is like a family reunion,” said DePastino. “Veterans have so much in common, and they understand each other. They are beautiful people. When I see all of these veterans at the breakfast club, I see community and the very best of the human spirit. They are passing on their wisdom.
When Eric shares his experiences,” he said about McElvenny, “he makes them applicable to everyone in life going through challenges.”
McElvenny’s biggest challenge came on Dec. 9, 2011.
It was 4:30 a.m. He was on his last of three deployments in Afghanistan. He and his comrades were embedded into an Afghan Army Infantry Company. They were patrolling on foot. McElvenny was heading back to base when he stepped on an improvised explosive device that triggered an explosion underneath his right foot.
“I remember that vividly,” he said. “I was conscious but didn’t know what exactly had happened. A violent force picked my body up and threw me to the ground. Instantly, my ears are ringing. And then life was just in slow motion. I could taste dust particles.”
He recalled lying on his back, and the first thing he thought was he was going to heaven. And that wasn’t necessarily scary.
“I am a Christian and I think heaven is an amazing place. But all of a sudden I picture my wife and my daughter’s face, and I got scared,” he said. “I got so scared.”
‘It’s about resilience’
Michael Shrum, a Navy corpsman, tended to McElvenny and got him and another injured soldier on a helicopter.
“There were still things on this earth that I wanted to do I thought to myself,” McElvenny said. “I wanted to raise my daughter and grow old with my wife. Now that was in jeopardy. Mike (Shrum) saved my life. I was in such bad pain.”
So when it came to finishing the Ironman race — swimming 2.4 miles in open water, followed by cycling for 112 miles on varying terrains and ending with a full 26.2-mile marathon — he refused to quit. He held his right leg in the air until the swelling went down enough to be able to attach his prosthetic leg.
He completed the final 8.6 miles, and then he collapsed.
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“It’s about getting back up and continuing to push forward,” McElvenny said. “That’s how we pull others up with us. That’s the character I learned from my parents and from the military. It’s about resilience. It’s grit. When things get hard, am I quick to walk away?”
No, and he didn’t walk. He ran to the finish line.
After losing his leg and returning home, he turned to competitive sports. He completed his first triathlon 22 months after his amputation. He has been racing since 2013 and represented Team USA in triathlon in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. He has finished eight full Ironman races.
This summer, he represented the United States in the 2024 Paralympics in Paris, where he traveled with his wife, Rachel, whom he met at the Naval Academy, and their three children, Lupe, Elise and William.
He said he is thankful every day that he gets to see his children grow up. He recalled that when his wife told Lupe about her dad being injured that December and that he would be coming home, the then-5-year-old said, “Well, that means Dad will be home for Christmas.”
Lupe saw the good in such a life-changing moment for their whole family.
‘What a remarkable story’
McElvenny was thinking of Lupe as he rode on the helicopter to get to medical treatment with another soldier who was also wounded that day. That soldier was on his first deployment and had lost his left leg the same way McElvenny lost his, by an IED.
“(The other wounded soldier) looks over at me and he says, ‘Sir, you first,’ as in, let them take you off the helicopter first. You know, I can hang on a little longer.’ I’ll never forget that,” McElvenny recalled.
“That’s the type of person that serves in our military. That is character. He just lost his left leg. He’s in extreme pain, too. His life has changed, as well. Instead of him thinking about himself, he’s able to look around and say, ‘What can I do for someone else right now?’”
Louis Sanchez, an Army veteran who grew up in East Liberty and lives in Penn Hills, said after McElvenny’s speech that he overcame a disaster and “was strong enough to get through it.”
Army veteran Ken Rozycki of Ohio Township called McElvenny an inspiration.
“To listen to him tell that story and to hear him talk about thinking about his family first, which family is important to all of us,” Rozycki said. “He brought tears to my eyes.”
It is amazing to think how much less it would take to bring down so many people, said DePastino.
“That would break us, and for Eric to say he would do it all again is awe-inspiring,” he said. “We have all had setbacks, but it is how you respond, and that was Eric’s message. We all live with loss, but it is about how you survive and thrive. What a remarkable story.”
McElvenny said it was an honor to share his story and listen to the stories of fellow veterans.
“Thank you for serving that purpose that is larger than yourself,” McElvenny told the veterans. “Thank you for your character and the foundation you built to provide freedom for our nation. Thank you for being the example that I wanted to emulate. Thanks for serving alongside me. If you picked up the torch after me. Thank you. And if you’re currently serving, I appreciate you.”
For more information about the Veterans Breakfast Club, visit veteransbreakfastclub.org.