GLENFINNAN, P.E.I. — Several health setbacks have seen long-time school bus driver Robbie Trainor seesaw between being fit as a fiddle and sick as a dog.
Trainor, 59, of Glenfinnan has always taken great strides to stay in top-notch shape, but cancer and other health issues have challenged such determination over the years.
He played many sports while growing up in Charlottetown, most commonly of the pick-up variety, like baseball and ball hockey.
At 16, the movie "Rocky" proved a big inspiration.
He started running. He even drank raw eggs, just like Rocky Balboa.
He then fell in love with roller skating. Rolling up a storm at the former Skate Country in Charlottetown, combined with a regular good bike ride to and from the roller rink, carved Trainor into a lean, healthy teen.
He started hitting the weights in his basement and running on a treadmill.
In 1987, he joined the Charlottetown Boxing Club at age 27 at a time when he was working as a bouncer at the former capital city bar called the Hideaway.
“I was in good shape – strong, hitting the (punching) bag pretty hard,’’ he recalls.
Just two years later, he took the first big hit to his health.
A tetanus shot resulted in Trainor acquiring Guillain Barre syndrome, a rare disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks the nerves.
He was laid out flat on his back for six weeks. It would be a full year before he could do any physical work.
Fast forward to 2005. Trainor is competing in five kilometre and 10 kilometre runs.
Just a couple years later, he has progressed to his first sprint triathlon, which consists of swimming 750 metres, cycling 20 kilometres and running five kilometres.
“It’s called a sprint for a reason,’’ he says.
“You are going full out.’’
Seven healthy, active years later, cancer is detected in Trainor’s throat. He is diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma, the second most common form of skin cancer.
Surgery appeared to remove the cancer. He rebounded quickly and once again was working himself back into a fine athletic specimen.
The cancer, however, returned with a vengeance in 2015, again in his throat.
He went through a punishing 33 rounds of radiation combined with a hefty wallop of chemotherapy.
The treatment flattened him.
He was sleeping 18 hours a day. He was on a feeding tube. He lost 35 pounds.
He leaned on his strong faith, as he had in the past, to get through his latest physical battle.
“I just try to stay positive…I just believe I can,’’ he says.
“You can have all the money in the world, but if you don’t have your health, what do you have?’’
He would be tested yet again in 2017 when he developed an ulcer in his throat from the radiation treatment.
Trainor was once again knocked off his training, this time until the spring of 2018.
He felt he needed motivation to get back to “where I want to be.’’
So, he signed up for a couple of sprint triathlons.
He raced through the first in Georgetown in July and the second in Summerside in August. The latter qualified him to compete in the Grand World Final Triathlon in August 2020 in Edmonton.
Some have asked Trainor – he has even asked himself – why he pushes so hard.
He says the times when he was flat on his back, he would have done anything in the world to be able to run, to be active, to be fit and healthy.
“If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything,’’ he says.
“You can have all the money in the world, but if you don’t have your health, what do you have?’’
His wife Christa, who is also a fitness fanatic, has convinced him to become totally vegan.
He does not touch any meat products anymore.
He likes to eat oatmeal with fruit, flax, hemp, cultured coconut yogurt, and plant-based milks. He eats heaps of fruits and vegetables and enjoys plenty of protein smoothies.
Trainor and his wife have set an extremely ambitious goal of dancing at their 50th wedding anniversary.
“I’ll be 105, she’ll be 96,’’ he says.
“So, in order to do that, we just want to live as healthy and happy as we can.’’
Trainor is leaning on good food, great fitness and strong faith to get him there.
“Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and it’s our obligation really to look after them,’’ he says.
