For the Journal-Constitution
DATE: September 9, 2007
PUBLICATION: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The (GA)
EDITION: State; The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SECTION: Metro News
PAGE: D14

Growing up in Decatur, Drew Johnston and Jeff Keating have known each other
since they were 5 and 6 years old, respectively.

Johnston was so diminutive, Keating recalled, that he "needed his classmates
to lift him up to drink from the water fountain."
After graduating from Decatur High School in the late 1980s, they went their
separate ways. Johnston, who grew to 5-foot-4, 135 pounds, moved to Europe
and became a professional cyclist during the mid to late 1990s. Keating
ultimately became a filmmaker, and in December 2002, started his own
production company called Doghouse Pictures.

By sheer chance, both returned to the Decatur area in recent years. When
Keating started Doghouse, Johnston called him and said, "No matter what kind
of film you're working on, promise you'll let me make a cameo appearance."
He's gotten his wish, and then some. For the past year Keating's been
shooting footage for a documentary he calls "Living is Winning: From Cancer
to Kona." The protagonist is none other than Johnston himself, who in the
last seven years abandoned cycling to become a triathlete.

The film revolves around last October's Ford Ironman World Championship held
in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. Kona is the Super Bowl of triathlons. Competing
against the world's best triathletes, Johnston finished 280th out of 1,852
participants in the swim-bike-run endurance test.

But that's only part of the story. Kona officials have told him that in the
30-year history of the event he is the only person to have competed in, much
less finished, this punishing race while suffering from leukemia.
Johnston averaged 110 races per year as a professional cyclist. In 1998,
however, doctors advised him to find another vocation after suffering his
third, and by far most serious, concussion. His recovery lasted six months,
which included frequent memory lapses and two weeks of slurred speech.
Johnston decided to become an exercise kinesiologist or, in layman's terms,
a high-level personal trainer. But as an outlet for his competitive fires,
and a compulsion for rigorous discipline, he turned to a relatively new
sport.

Triathlons -- the earliest ones date to the 1970s -- vary in distance, but
all Ironman triathlons consist of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and
a 26.2-mile (or marathon distance) run. Johnston has competed in 50
triathlons, including five Ironman events (he's completed four).
In 2004, a few weeks after a Lake Placid Ironman, where he was forced to
drop out during mile 15 of the marathon, a routine doctor visit revealed
serious trouble. He had a white blood cell count of 110,000, compared to
normal levels of 4,000 to 10,000. Shortly thereafter a hematologist
confirmed that Johnston, then 32, had chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML).

Simply put, two chromosomes "break up and transmutate," Johnston said,
causing the hyper-reproduction of white cells. Thus, with fewer and fewer
red cells in his system, Johnston had extreme oxygen deprivation, and his
endurance plummeted dramatically. Doctors told him if he were lucky enough
to survive, he'd still live with the disease his entire life. He was
subsequently put on a drug called Gleevec, which he takes daily.

"Right now," Johnston said, "I'm in what they call molecular remission.
Which means basically my DNA looks normal. It's as close to a cure as they
have right now. But I'll be on Gleevec the rest of my life. From what I've
read, without Gleevec, I'd have at best three to five years to live."
In July 2006, nearly two years after his diagnosis, Johnston was well enough
to finish 38th in the Coeur d'Alene (Idaho) Ironman. Next came Kona, and two
months ago he finished 42nd overall in a Lake Placid Ironman.

"The truth is," he said, "there's really no precedent for what I'm doing.
Doctors don't know if doing an Ironman is good or bad for me. Because of the
extra white cells, I have less aerobic capacity than normal. Anemia, and
therefore fatigue, is a big issue for me. Also, because of the medication, I
tend to get stomach cramps and leg cramps.

"What the doctors tell me," he said, is 'don't push beyond your limits.
Listen to your body.' I can tell you this, even with all the side effects,
I've never felt more alive than when I'm out there competing."
Keating plans to start editing his film this month. He isn't yet sure when
it'll be released. He's still in the process of securing sponsors and
raising money for expenses. For more information about "Living is Winning,"
see www.doghousepictures.biz.