Know Your Neighbor: Dr. Michael Bergstein, ENT Specialist/Ironman Athlete, Chappaqua

A few years ago when Dr. Michael Bergstein was watching his children play lacrosse, he received the inspiration to rekindle his own athletic exploits.

As it turned out, Bergstein, a high school swimmer, just didn’t end up going to the gym on weekends, but began preparing for some of the most extreme competitions anyone could participate in.

Some prodding from colleagues at Club Fit led him to waking up at 4:20 a.m. every day to train for more than two hours before work (he would take two days off a month) in preparation to become an Ironman Triathlete. The Ironman competition he entered at Lake Placid in July 2013 consisted of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a full marathon (26.2 miles).

“Whatever I have done, I’ve always wanted to do the best, be the best that I can be. So I wanted to do it,” Bergstein explained of his inner personal drive. “When I was studying in college I studied harder than anybody else. I needed to accomplish my mission and the mission was to get into medical school and then to go to the best fellowship program…and then when I got into practice here I wanted to be the best doctor, the most successful.”

Bergstein’s incredible journey didn’t end when he made it to the start of his Ironman. It was only just beginning. About halfway into the bike ride, he was coming into town, and a tent, one similar to those at a farmers market, inexplicably flew out of the ground, into the air and fell squarely on him.

Bergstein, 57, thought he was okay, got his bike repaired and continued the Ironman. But the pain would soon be unbearable. Every time he breathed, his chest hurt, but he struggled through the remainder of the bike ride.

As it turned out he would need to summon every bit of his determination and rely on his training to complete the marathon.

“I wound up getting through the bike portion and when I got off the bike I just felt this enormous pain in my hip,” said Bergstein, an ear, nose and throat specialist with ENT and Allergy Associates in Sleepy Hollow and Yorktown. “I was just like I don’t care. I was able to do the first 18 miles, progressively getting slower. Only when I got to mile 18, I couldn’t go anymore.”

For the final eight-plus miles Bergstein was literally picking up his leg and moving it over one step at a time. It took him 15 hours, 3 minutes to complete the Ironman.

He later learned he had fractured ribs and a broken pelvis. The bones healed but later on it was his general practitioner who discovered that Bergstein’s PSA levels were high. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Surgery followed in February 2014, but Bergstein wasn’t fully cured and had to endure radiation. Even while he was undergoing treatment, starting in February, Bergstein doggedly continued his training.

“What I wanted to do is I wanted to get back and feel whole again,” Bergstein said. “I wanted to feel as I did prior to the first race.”

In July, he made it back to Lake Placid for this year’s Ironman and lowered his finishing time to 13 hours, 28 minutes.

“I think I wasn’t going to let the cancer stop me,” Bergstein said. “I was so consumed with being healthy and being Mike Bergstein, doctor, dad and athlete that I just considered this as another challenge to overcome.”

Bergstein, a 21-year-old Chappaqua resident with his wife, credits his toughness and resiliency to his parents and his lower middle class upbringing in Queens. Bergstein’s parents were Holocaust survivors and whenever he thought that life dealt him an unfair hand, he just looked around the house.

“I saw what they endured, the unspeakable horrors that they went through,” he said. “Whatever I was going through I would look around and think what they were going through, losing their homes, losing their families, what I’m doing is miniscule compared to what they went through.”

Coming out of Jamaica High School, Bergstein, who wanted to become a doctor because he loved the 1970s TV drama “Medical Center,” attended SUNY Buffalo for college. He was accepted to Mount Sinai School of Medicine and competed against students who came out of the most prestigious universities. He completed his fellowship at University of California, San Francisco.

Now healthy, Bergstein said he loves being fit and active, setting goals and having the energy to do what he loves to do.