Friday, August 24, 2012

Challenge Copenhagen - hardest day of my life!


I certainly had a memorable experience on Sunday the 12th August. Not necessarily one i want to remember but i definately learnt a lot about myself.

After Challenge Roth training had been going really well, with a week of recovery training and then getting back in to it i was really enjoying focusing on training with no distractions and enjoying the warm German summer. Then boom it hit me. Two weeks out from Challenge Copenhagen i fell ill. At first i thought i had pulled a muscle near my ribs as i was getting sharp pains when i breathed in but by that night i couldnt even lie down as the pain was severe and it was getting hard to breathe. Wandering around during the night not able to sleep i knew i had to do something about it by the morning. My host family were great and took me to the doctors (at this stage i was thinking they will wack some pills in to me and ill be fine in a few days) but no off they sent me to the hospital for more tests. After a few hours spent there they worked out the problem. I had developed an infection around the right lung and fluid in the ribs....hmm not good, especially when they said i would need to rest for 3 weeks! I had no where near this time available but wasnt much point in arguing as i couldnt walk without bending over!

Off home and a week of lying around it was clear i couldnt train. I tried really easy riding a few days later with no luck getting 10mins away from the house and had to sit on side of road for a car ride back as couldnt even make the small 10minute trip home. But sitting upright on a spin bike was manageable.  A few days later i tried a swim...hmm after pushing off the wall and not even able to take one stroke i was left clinging to the lane rope wondering how i would get back to the edge. Dont get me wrong things were bad but i was trying to stay positive and it was quite funny that all these simple tasks were now near impossible.  It was now a week out from Challenge Copenhagen and i was meant to be flying to Denmark. Feeling pretty miserable because i still couldnt swim bike or run i wasnt sure there was any point in going but i flew over.

Wednesday before the race i still couldnt bike or run without becoming seriously out of breathe and was still getting sharp pains in the chest but i could swim 25m with wetsuit, flippers and paddles, haha success :)
Thursday morning i woke up and successfully did some swimming, biking and running - nothing fancy but i was moving :) success again.  Friday i registed and decided i would race.

Sunday morning came and i was super nervous with 2weeks of barely any training and still getting sore pains in chest BUT for all those out there who thought i was silly to race, i could breathe again so i was good to go.

Right now for the race...jumping in for the swim i got a bit of a shock. It was 19degrees which isnt cold but my lungs were finding this temp hard to breathe in. Easy solution dont take as many breaths!  I started at the back for the swim trying to avoid getting hit. I felt as if i was swimming steady but never really pushing the pace so was happy to learn later that i swam 57mins.  O by the way my fab coach Keegan made me race without a watch or speedo on the bike, as had enough to focus on without worrying about times etc BUT promised me there would be 10km markers on bike! Hmm i saw 2 markers over the 180km bike, so had to base my nutrition timing and sanity off the sun, he will keep :)

On to the bike i was feeling ok. No speed to worry about just me and the open road. First lap went ok but second lap i started to get a sore back and legs and found myself riding alone.  Towards the end i went the wrong way but found the course again (dumb blonde) and got to T2.

Right run to go and my ribs hadnt really been a bother yet. Great i was thinking, just get through this marathon. The first 18km went pretty smoothly and they had markers out so i was feeling pretty happy and felt as though i was running an ok speed BUT here is where my body had a different plan for me! I started to feel really faint and noticed i was loosing blood. Wont go in to more gory details but after having no "women issues" for half a year i guess having a couple of weeks off sick before the race had mucked up my body.  To try and pick myself up i took a gel. Bad idea as hadnt been training with them for months and im not sure if it was that or something else but something shifted everything in my gut down south and ended up with bad Diarrhea. Once again wont go in to the gory details but you can imagine by now things werent pretty and i was in quite a state and starting to go downhill. By the 36km mark i was a wreck and had to start walking.  I could and maybe should of pulled out but i wanted that finished line more than anything. So after around an hour i think of walking and avoiding the medics trying to pull me off the course i made it to the finish line. That was after accidently passing it once, obviously because i was having so much fun walking and trying to do another lap.
still running here!

Walking down the finish line like some wobbly drunk person i couldnt of been more happy than to see Victoria Murray-Orr (organiser of Challenge Wanaka) standing there to give me a hug and hold me up. It had been such a hard day and was only about to get harder with 5 odd hours in the medical tent after.

Challenge Copenhagen is a great race and i still loved being there racing despite all the dramas.  The organisers are great and i really hope to get back there and race again.

A few HUGE thanks have to be given out for this finish. My coach Keegan Williams for helping me get to that start line when i was feeling really low, and his host Uffe Winther and family for taking me in after mine fell through. I dont know how i would of got around in the days before the race without their help.
Keegans wife Tracey and her sister Ange for looking after me afterwards in my messy state and being a great supporters in Denmark even with having to look after wee Ava too, whos smile always cheers you up.
Victoria for catching me at the end of the race! I cant wait to race Challenge Wanaka again next year.
Also the Baums family back in Germany for running me around with all the medical help i needed.