Mark Lyons was several hours into one of the toughest mountain bike races in the world in November聽when he found himself at a river crossing, alone, and had to hop off his bike and hoist it to his shoulder and attempt to hike across.聽The 55-year-old American cyclist was competing in聽Costa Rica鈥檚 grueling聽, a 67-mile cross-country聽race through jungle聽and around active volcanoes. As he carefully strode into the stream,聽he lost his footing and slipped聽into the rushing water.
At first, Lyons held onto his bike. He thought he would slip down to a slow moving area, pull himself out and continue the race. But it wasn鈥檛 so simple. The water was moving so fast that it ripped Lyons鈥 shoes from his feet.聽鈥淚 didn鈥檛 expect to keep picking up speed the way I did,鈥 Lyons says.
Lyons eventually let go of his bike, flattened himself on the water and stuck his feet out in front of him to defend against rocks and boulders. Every so often his feet would hit one, sending him spinning. For about ten minutes, the river carried him, continuously pulling him under the rushing water. 鈥淭hat was the only time I was afraid I wasn鈥檛 going to make it,鈥 Lyons says. 鈥淚 would go down for long time and then I would feel air on my face, take a breath and get pulled down again.”
Lyons had limited experience with whitewater. Still, he managed to do some of the most important things to avoid drowning, says Isaac Ingram, the deputy director of the and a 15-year rafting guide. 鈥淭he most dangerous thing that he could have done would have been to try to stand up when he was going down the river,鈥 Ingram says. 鈥淏eing as exhausted as he was from the bike race, it would have been easy for him to let his feet drop to try to get out.”聽
According to Ingram, Lyons got into what is known as the passive swimming position, the recommended technique for surviving a fall into whitewater. Keeping his feet in front of him, Lyons was able to kick off rocks and avoid getting caught on an underwater obstacle. Entrapment, says Ingram, is the most important thing to avoid in rapids.聽
To make it to shore, Lyons would have needed to turn over onto his belly and begin swimming perpendicular to the current, Ingram says. But about a mile downstream Lyons got lucky. A bend in the river allowed him to drift toward聽a log wedged between two rocks, use it to brake himself, and then climb out of the river. But even on land, Lyons鈥 situation wasn鈥檛 much better:聽he was alone, deep in a tropical rain forest, and no one had seen him fall. For the next 30 hours, he fought his way, barefoot, through the jungle, subsisting on spring water and sports drink powder.聽
鈥淐learly he is a survivor,鈥 Ingram says.
By the time Lyons hiked back to the racetrack the next day, his liver and kidneys were near failure. Lyons spent six days in the hospital recuperating, which is when his ordeal finally set in, he says.聽鈥淥nce I was in the hospital I realized how lucky I was.”