<p>When a local triathlete found out he had cancer, he prepared for treatment as if he were gearing up for a race.</p><p>Chad Gilles was training to compete in a Half Ironman triathlon, with a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike ride and 13.1-mile run, with his daughter in Florida in the spring of 2017 when he found a lump on his neck while shaving.</p><p>He mentioned the lump during a checkup on March 3 of that year, and his doctor recommended a needle biopsy. When the results came back, they confirmed that Gilles, now 55, had metastatic squamous neck cancer with occult primary — or tumors in his neck with an unknown origin, though squamous cell is usually a skin cancer.</p><p>Unfortunately for Gilles, the cancer diagnosis meant he couldn’t participate in the Florida triathlon, so he went and watched his daughter run it instead. But he was able to start his treatment in excellent physical condition.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>“I just thought at that point, it was going to be better to go into this thing in the shape of being ready to do a Half Ironman than to have just completed one,” he said. “I figured I was going to need everything I had.”</p><p>Beginning in April 2017, Gilles underwent daily radiation treatments for seven weeks along with a weekly dose of chemotherapy. He wound up losing more than 20 pounds during the process — along with his sense of taste, which he says still hasn’t fully returned more than a year later.</p><p>Getting through that stretch of time required him to maintain a positive outlook and approach treatment one step at a time — just as he would a triathlon.</p><p>“When you’re in a triathlon like that, when you’ve got a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike and a 26.2 (mile) marathon, if you go into the swim thinking about that marathon at the end of the day … you’re not going to get there,” Gilles said. “You’re doing the swim, you’ve got to focus on the swim.”</p><p>“If you’re doing radiation today, I’ve got to focus on doing the radiation. If I’m doing chemo next week, I’ve got to focus on the chemo. You focus on what you can do right then and there, and you do what you’re supposed to do.”</p><p>On Sept. 13, 2017, Gilles found out that the full-body PET scan he had done the previous day came back clear. By that point, he had already completed his first post-treatment triathlon, the Tri Indy Sprint, with a 500-yard swim, 12-mile bike ride, 3.1-mile run.</p><p>This year, he completed a pair of events that he had missed during treatment last year — the Half Ironman in Ocala, Florida, in March and the Escape From Alcatraz in June. Gilles received medical deferments for both races, meaning he didn’t need to pay to register a second time.</p><p>Gilles said he was very happy with his performances in those events and that he’s training at the same level as he was before his diagnosis with no real impediments.</p><p>He had completed two full Ironman triathlons before being diagnosed, including one in Florida in November 2016, and he’s hoping to do another one next year to bring his journey full circle.</p><p>“If I can do that, that to me is what’s going to close the chapter on it,” Gilles said.</p><p>In an online diary he maintained during his fight with cancer, he wrote that after each triathlon he competes in, he looks back and thinks about where he could have done something differently or pushed himself harder.</p><p>He did the same with his treatment and said that he wouldn’t have changed anything about his approach.</p><p>“All of those other races mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually prepared me and pushed me to the finish line in the most important race I’ve ever run,” Gilles wrote in his final post last fall.</p>[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="Chad Gilles" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>Age: 55</p><p>Home: Greenwood</p><p>Type of cancer: Squamous cell with unknown primary</p><p>Date diagnosed: March 8, 2017</p><p>Treatment: Bilateral neck radiation to all lymph nodes in the neck (35 treatments over 7 weeks) along with seven weekly treatments of Cisplatin chemotherapy</p><p>What has cancer taught you?</p><p>Tomorrow is never guaranteed, so make an effort to live your life every day.</p><p>How has cancer changed you?</p><p>I came to realize I have considerable control over what happens to me in life, whether it’s cancer or any other challenge that I might face. I used to put things off that I did not like or knew were going to be uncomfortable; now I try to take them on as soon as possible.</p><p>What would you tell someone just diagnosed with cancer?</p><p>A positive attitude is great medicine for cancer, or any other ailment, but it does not replace what your doctors and nurses have planned for you. They will work very hard to tailor a treatment plan for you — do what they tell you to do, especially what the nurses tell you. Following every little instruction they give you, as well as maintaining a positive attitude, is the best possible course of treatment and will give you the best outcome possible for your specific cancer. If you skimp on any of those aspects, it lessens your chance for the most positive outcome.</p>[sc:pullout-text-end]
