Scott Rigsby

With his short, cropped hair, mustache and goatee, the brawny man stands out in the crowd of men and women wandering around near Lake Coeur d’Alene.

It’s a few days to the Ford Ironman Coeur d’Alene, but Rigsby is not here to compete like last year. He’s here to help.

“My purpose for being here is to volunteer in any way I can at the Ironman,” the 39-year-old said. “So many people have been so good to me here. I really feel like it’s my second home.”

He quickly rattles off a list of people and businesses, Jim Headley, Rick and Roxanne Gunther, Mike and Jenni Gaertner, the owners of Vertical Earth, and Robideaux Motors, as just some of those who have helped him by offering a place to stay, fixing a bike and providing a car to use.

“The community has made an investment in me,” he said. “I want to do what I can to give back.”

Since Rigsby became the first double-amputee to finish the Ironman championship in Hawaii last year, he has been on the run in different directions and received numerous awards and is up for more honors, too.

They include:

• The 2007 Physically Challenged Athlete of the Year by Competitor Magazine.

• The 2008 Male Star of the Year by the Atlanta Sports Hall of Fame.

• The 2007 American Society of Plastic Surgeons Patient of Courage Award.

• Grand Marshal of the Children’s Hospital of Atlanta Festival of Trees Christmas parade.

An inspirational, six-minute film, “Unthinkable: The Scott Rigsby Story,” has been produced — “It’s a way for me to honor God and encourage people that faith does work,” he said — and a book on his experiences is in the works.

He’s even involved with a project at Georgia Tech to develop a center so people who have recently undergone surgery “will have a place to begin their journey for an active lifestyle.”

There would be affiliates across the country to support their long-term needs. There will be a special focus on the wounded vets as well. The center will also use these studies to advance training equipment and prosthetics for amputees.

He’s also one of 10 finalists for the Energizer “Keep Going” Hall of Fame “to showcase all those people who have the same perseverance, never-quit spirit and positive attitude as the Energizer Bunny.”

The winner will receive a $10,000 cash prize plus a $5,000 donation to their favorite charity.

“I’m hoping my second family here will vote for me and I’m hoping Ironman folks will vote for me,” Rigsby said.

“When I saw the Energizer contest promotion, the “Keep Going” theme seemed to exemplify everything Scott Rigsby represents,” said Scott Johnson, Rigsby’s manager and lead adviser to the Scott Rigsby Foundation. “His accomplishments are truly phenomenal, and are only surpassed by his personal mission to inspire others to overcome their personal challenges.”

While the awards and accolades are nice, it’s not what motivates Rigsby. What drives him, he says, is the chance to share his story with children, students, other amputees and wounded veterans and inspire them to face adversity with determination and courage.

“Maybe they all can look at me and say, you know what? Life is tough, but if this guy can make it, then I can make it,” he said.

Rigsby was just 18 when he was thrown from a truck while working a summer job and dragged more than 380 feet under a three-ton trailer.

After losing his right leg, he endured more than 26 surgeries and $2 million in medical bills in 10 years before finally deciding to “free” himself from being a professional patient and remove his left leg.

He struggled to set a course for his life and suffered years of chronic pain, depression, and drug addiction.

In 2005, he was living with his parents, couldn’t pay his bills and was going deeper into debt each day and facing what seemed to be insurmountable odds.

“I had no hope, no destiny. I didn’t have any reason to live,” he said.

It was in January 2006 — with no formal swim training, he didn’t own a bike and had never run farther than a mile on a set of prosthetics — he set his sights on Ironman.

“What I had to do was focus on the things I actually could do,” he said.

So he started running, first around a parking lot to build his endurance.

“I didn’t want anybody to see me trying to run,” he said.

He tried some shorter triathlons to test himself, and came to the Lake City last year to try and become the first double amputee to complete an Ironman.

Rigsby made it through the 2.4-mile swim, crashed about 65 miles into the 112-mile bike ride, but managed to finish. He started the run, but had to drop out after about 13 miles.

He was disappointed, but not deterred from pushing on.

“Failure is not final. It’s just part of the process of getting to the finish line,” he said. “To me, this race is as significant as me finishing Hawaii.”

And while he reached the finish at Kona, Rigsby said “it was really about a starting line.”

“Ironman has allowed me into places someone like me normally wouldn’t have been able to go, to do things I wouldn’t have been able to do,” he said.

The race changed his life, he says, but “training for the Ironman saved my life. I feel like God saved me and spared my life for a purpose.”

Rigsby is not shy about sharing his faith.

“You take an ordinary guy like me and place it in hands of an extraordinary God, and He does amazing things,” he said.

He doesn’t worry about any troubles that wait, and in fact, jokes about what he endures.

During a short triathlon in April, he had trouble on the swim because his wetsuit was too tight on his neck, the cleats came off on his prosthetic feet during the bike ride and he had to pedal 18 miles with one leg, and experimental, curved carbon feet were “trashed” about three miles into the run and he had to stop and use duct tape to hold them together.

And when those things happen, he shrugs his big shoulders, smiles and just laughs.

“If you look at the race it parallels life. You’re trying to get to some place. Sometimes things are going smoothly, sometimes you have people beating you over the head. You can’t stop, you can’t rest. That hourglass of life is ticking.

“It’s all about trying to do everything you can to get to the finish line,” he said. “It’s all about having an attitude that whatever’s thrown at me, I’ll overcome it.”