COEUR d’ALENE — On Wednesday afternoon at City Park, friends Les Dooley and Rob Eachon took a break from their Ironman CDA volunteer duties to chat.

Eachon, who has done 15 Ironmans, was surprised to hear that Dooley would be competing in the event on Sunday.

“You’ve been through a lot,” Eachon said. “It’s good to see you out there kicking.”

A minute later, Dooley walked to the group of volunteers to resume stuffing goodie bags. As he watched, Eachon said Dooley typifies the spirit of Ironman.

“Here’s a guy, in spite of the odds, he’s out there doing it," he said.

The 67-year-old Dooley is tackling his first full Ironman on Sunday. He’ll join a field of around 3,000 as they attempt to swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and then run 26.2 miles. The challenge is made even greater by triple-digit temperatures.

But the Rathdrum man, a husband to May for 45 years, father of six, grandfather of 24, has perhaps endured more, shown more resolve than anyone, to be at the starting line.

Before the 2019 race, he crashed on his bike near Silver Beach Marina and broke his collar bone.

In January 2020, he was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer and is still in the midst of that battle. In fact, three days after Ironman, he has an appointment with his doctor to review the progress of his condition.

On Sept. 29, 2020, the contractor broke several bones in both feet, broke his right ankle and cracked his sternum, when he was unloading scaffolding frames for a construction job and it tipped over.

Told to stay off his feet for two months, he refused to be like most and rest. He is a driven man. Instead, he crawled — at home, to church, up a ladder and onto a roof. He even dug a hole and put in a tree.

“I had work I had to finish," he told his incredulous doctor.

Dooley wore air boots, went through therapy for several months, started walking in March and finally, on April 2, ran again, covering 5 miles.

The three-time Ironman CDA 70.3 finisher was back.

"My right foot didn’t like it much,” he said, laughing. “It took a month of running to get the right foot to stop hurting.”

He soldiered on.

His training has gone well and Dooley is feeling good about Sunday’s Ironman, considered one of the toughest races in the world.

“I’ve been wanting to do a full for 20 years, just never got around to it,” he said.

But that's not his only challenge.

His fight with cancer took a turn for the worse when doctors found a spot on his pelvis they said looked cancerous.

“That shook my wife up a bit,” he said.

He is being treated by Cancer Treatment Centers of America. In March, he started hormone therapy and received a shot that stops his body from producing testosterone.

Last July, he went in for radiation therapy and was due for another shot in September but decided against it.

“I said, ‘If I don’t have to, I don’t want to.’”

While his energy returned, his prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, levels also rose. The blood level of PSA is often elevated in men with prostate cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Dooley's doctor has been monitoring his PSA levels and next Wednesday, he’ll have a teleconference to get an update on his condition.

“If the PSA has gone up again, I’ll probably have to go back on the hormone therapy,” he said of something he would like to avoid.

For now, his focus is on Ironman CDA. He is determined to finish. It means a great deal to him. Some of his children and grandchildren will be waiting for him.

His doctor didn't try to talk him out of it.

“I want to get this done,” he told his doctor. “And he respects that.”

If his prognosis is good, Dooley said he would like to do another Ironman.

“If my wife will let me,” he added, laughing.

If not, he said this might be the end of his Ironman adventures because it requires such a time commitment.

There are more important things. He turns serious and says he is doing all he can to make sure May is taken care of financially.

“I need to spend some time with my wife," he said.

When asked if he had any final thoughts to share, Dooley paused, then said yes, he did. He said he wanted to thank God for blessing him with a strong, healthy body that has enabled him to do so much.

He enjoys being busy, working hard as a contractor, being with loved ones, attending Lake City Community Church, training with his friends in the Coeur d'Alene Triathlon Team. He considers those things gifts.

“God gave me that ability," he said. "I appreciate so much what he’s done for me."