Triple T Update

Long story short: I wasn't feeling great when I left on Thursday--I was coughing fairly often--and it got worse on Friday to the point where I thought I had a sinus infection (may still have one) and got stung by something in my left ear which caused it to blow up like cauliflower, and then my lungs got gunked up with something.

On Saturday morning, I still managed to do the first Olympic distance race, faring OK on the swim and bike, but suffering on the run as I was wheezing. I checked into medical afterwards for the sting and wheezing, and they dug a stinger out of my ear (yes, I need to get a script for an Epipen) but gave me nothing for the wheezing.

I was very unsure whether I could or should start the second race on Saturday afternoon, but I got lucky in that Shelley gave me one of her inhalers, and I pumped myself full of caffeine, aspirin and antihistamines and set out for the second Olympic race, which starts with a bike ride.

I actually felt pretty good riding, and managed to pass a lot of people (the time trial start had almost all the teams starting ahead of me which meant I started way back) and had a better bike split on a tougher course than in the morning race, swam OK again, but felt like I was going to die on the run. I felt pretty awful finishing, and was getting stuffed up in my nose to boot.

Saturday night I slept extremely fitfully and couldn't stop coughing and didn't want to wake anyone else up in the cabin so I went out to sleep on the couch. I don't think I got much sleep that night, and it was about 4AM, I'm guessing, when I decided I was way too sick to start the 1/2 Ironman. Still, I got up with everyone else and decided I could at least cheer and take pictures.

In the midst of all the excitement, I forgot to eat breakfast, but I felt committed to getting pictures of everyone I knew (6 staying in the cabin plus maybe 5 other people I'm friends with) starting their swim, and then I wanted to get some shots leaving on the bike. I got pretty hungry and needed to go back to the cabin to get some food and drop off a friend's wetsuit (yes, I was playing Sherpa), and then I headed back down for bike duty.

I ended up showing the way for the turnaround where athletes could pick up fresh bike bottles and got a lot of pictures of my peeps, and then I stayed there for the run, getting a lot of pics and cheering for pretty much everyone in general, despite how crappy I felt.

So I did do the sprint and the 2 Olympics but not the 1/2 Ironman. My friend Julie grabbed me a finisher's shirt because she said I deserved it. As sick as I was, I had a great time, as I enjoy cheering for and helping out athletes as much as I enjoy racing myself.

I still haven't figured out my own race times, but will get to that sometime tomorrow after I pay a visit to my physician for some antibiotics and an Epipen, since this was my first sting of the year and already I had a pretty bad reaction, and last year I went from mild to extreme hives, so I think I'm in danger of a bad incident with a stinging insect!

I'll write more when I'm feeling a little better. For now, I need a ton of bed rest. Most of my friends did really well at the races, and I'm really happy for them. Me--I know when to kill it, and I had to do it this weekend or risk several weeks being out of commission. I have many other races coming up, and more fun, so we'll just chalk this one up to perhaps a little too much stress combined with heavy training.