Barth spends life proving
numbers wrong

KLAUS Barth came to the Ironman Triathlon the same way many people did. He was captivated by the image of a heroic Julie Moss, inspired by her crawling across the finish line in 1982.

"I had never finished a marathon," he says, "wasn't a runner, was all swimmer. Really not a biker. I had no idea what I was doing."

But in 1985, on his third try, the 30-something high school teacher and coach finished eighth.

It is a point of honor in Ironman that your place at the finish is the race number issued to you the next year. But when Barth showed up in 1986 his label didn't read "8". It was in the high 40s, and he wanted to know why.

Basically he was told he'd been a fluke: his eighth was a weak field and a lucky day. Eight went to one of the elite.

And Klaus Barth got inspired again.

This time he was fourth. Behind Dave Scott, Mark Allen and Scott Tinley, Ironman's male Mount Rushmore. The all-time greats.

He was 37 years old.

"I didn't say that much," Barth says. But everybody knew.

INJURIES HIT HIM after that. Knee surgery, Achilles' tendon surgery.

"Then I got 40 years old," he says.

He won a couple of Masters division titles. But there were always nagging hurts, and so he shut it down to heal for his big comeback at 50.

And then it happened.

"The worst part in my life," he says.

A seizure. Aug. 14, four years ago today, in fact. The doctors found brain cancer. The worst tumor you can get.

"I have the Cadillac," Barth says.

Most who get his diagnosis are gone within a year.

He's still smiling, his family still laughing, after four.

"The way I deal with it is I don't think too much about fear," he says. "The way I deal with it is just tell me what to do, I'll do it."

It is his wife, Shari, who handles everything, who must deal with cancer, and reality, as Barth barges through life insisting he's fine, he's OK, he's good, no matter what the test results say. It is she who takes on the things he refuses to think about.

"It's a team," she says.

"I don't think I would be around without her," he says.

More than 1,000 e-mails from the triathlon family have poured in, old friends and strangers, each inspiring him, reminding him never to give up the fight. It seems that Ironman, perhaps the most individual of all sports, is a team, too.

Tomorrow the third Ironman Revisited traces the original Oahu route to benefit challenged athletes. And in this race, relays are allowed. Tinley, who says Barth is the most selfless, family-oriented Ironman he ever met, will be on the bike. Barth's former Long Beach Wilson High School student, Tom Gallagher, will do the marathon run for his old coach.

And the swimmer. Well, Klaus is in just the right time in his chemotherapy cycle, and all of his doctors have signed off. He'll hit the water at 7 a.m. tomorrow at San Souci.

There won't be a dry eye on the beach.