Terry Gurno, of Coeur d’Alene, is a professional speaker and leadership development and training provider. His son, Levi Gurno, reversed roles on him about three years ago when he motivated his dad to train for an Ironman competition.

The Gurnos have put their story in a book scheduled to be released on Father’s Day weekend, June 15, with the title unFinished Business. They each tell the story of overcoming their doubts and fears and how they rallied around each other, especially father around son, to reach their Ironman goal.

With a childhood history of asthma, Levi, now 27, battled weight and inactivity early in youth. He ultimately dropped the weight and kept it off after reaching high school, but his father says he couldn’t shed a lot of the lost confidence despite the weight loss.

Finally, in 2014, and living in Seattle at the time, Levi told his family he’d be training for the annual Coeur d’Alene Ironman the following year.

“He was a starter and not a finisher,” Terry Gurno says. “We didn’t believe he’d finish.”

According to Terry, Levi told him, “Not finishing is not an issue, it’s a matter of getting the time I want.”

When Levi finished, his father confided that completing Ironman was something he himself had always wanted to do. Levi said, “A year from now, you’re going to be an Ironman.”

When reached by the Journal via phone this week on his way back from Indiana, Terry Gurno became audibly emotional recounting the way his son helped him overcome the obstacles he believed would prevent him from finishing the competition.

“I have arthritis. I have bad knees, and he tells me after he finished in 2015, ‘I just did it,’ “ Terry Gurno says.

Over the next year, Terry Gurno learned how to swim and entered his first Ironman competition in 2016. He didn’t finish, but he bounced back in 2017 with Levi serving as his father’s personal cheering squad escort.

“At one point I told him, ‘I hurt, I can’t go on.’ He said, ‘It’s Ironman. You’re going to hurt, how do you want to hurt and where? Here, or the finish line?’ “

With that said, Terry Gurno proceeded to finish the race with less than two minutes to spare before disqualification, and he proceeded to collapse in his son’s arms.

“It’s not about Ironman for everybody,” Terry Gurno says. “It could play itself out in other ways in your life. It’s about a re-awakening where you confront your doubt, fear, and past failures to move on.”

Father and son later this year plan to compete together at an Ironman competition in Arizona.

 “It’s not about Ironman for everybody. It could play itself out in other ways in your life.”

Terry Gurno

Speaker, leadership development and training provider