What a Difference a Year Makes!
A year ago today,
I was sitting at the Cancer Center short of breath and exhausted waiting to get
a treatment. I had just raced Iron
Girl Atlanta the day before. I had
never been that close to aborting a race in the five years that I’d been doing
triathlon as I was that day! I had
overheated in my wetsuit during the swim and proceeded to have a panic attack. I somehow managed to pull myself
together and, with lots and lots of rest breaks, I finished the race. When I went to get my treatment the
next day, I figured they’d tell me my continued shortness of breath and chest
tightness was all in my head. It
wasn’t. After a simple test of
having me walk fifty feet and watching my oxygen saturation levels drop
dramatically, they swiftly sent me to the hospital to make sure I wasn’t having
cardiac issues – a common problem with chemo for breast cancer.
Turns out that I
didn’t have any cardiac issues. I
have exercise-induced asthma. I’ve
had mild symptoms for years that I’d never addressed and that I’ve been able to
compensate for, but the chemo pushed me over the edge. In the past year, my pulmonologist has
been trying to get me onto a regime that doesn’t leave me short of breath and
with a tight chest every time I have a hard workout or race. I suspect that he doesn’t work with
young cancer survivors who are also endurance athletes. J He finally got me sorted out shortly before the Nashville
marathon in April. Still, I was
nervous to see how I’d fare at Iron Girl since last year was a bit “challenging”
to say the least.
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| Bald, boobless, and breathless |
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| Busty, breathing and cruising! |
Wow! What a difference a year makes! Last year, I was sporting a GI Jane
hairdo, compliments of chemo, was as flat chested as my Jamie, and could barely
breathe. This year, I filled out
my tri top waaaaay better than I expected to and had full head of hair. Breathing? Well, I had to take two puffs on my inhaler, once during the
bike and once after I finished, but I did it! I actually p.r.’d on the run – got my best 5K time ever! While I didn’t place or even make it
into the top 100 like I did in 2009, I was excited about my performance!
I’ve raced the
Iron Girl Atlanta race three years now.
Each year, I’ve raced it with a friend. The first year, I raced with my very first Middle GA
training buddy, Stefanie. Last
year, I raced with my marathon and now tri buddy, Lynn. This year, I raced with my friend Linda
and one of my cycling buddies Kim who was doing her very first tri. I love racing with friends. Not to see who comes out on top, but
for the camaraderie of the experience.
I absolutely love seeing my friends out on the course, giving them a
high five and cheering them on!
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| Linda, Kim and me at the finish. Hooray for our newest triathlete, Kim! |
I like Iron Girl
Atlanta in that it’s so welcoming to women, all women, no matter what age, body
composition or ability. Everyone
has her own story of how she ended up at the starting line. There is a feeling of oneness among the
racers. Case in point – I hugged a
random woman standing next to me shivering with cold and nerves while we waited
for the swim start. We started
talking and others joined in.
Before we knew it, it was our turn to race.
I’ve found after
racing triathlons for the past five years that tri people are generally a very
friendly group, so the atmosphere of IG doesn’t surprise me. Almost everyone is happy to be there
and to be sharing the experience with other women. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind racing with guys (If you’ve
never been to a triathlon, the “eye-candy” is great!), but it’s nice to not
have to worry about getting bowled over or kicked in the ribs during the swim,
passed constantly on the bike and chased down on the run. While those things do happen in women’s
only events, women are usually nicer about it when they run into on the swim or
pass you on the bike or run.
The swim is in a
nice little inlet of Lake Lanier and is relatively shallow. While many ladies wore wetsuits this
year, I chose to forgo mine. It
would have made me more buoyant (translation: a bit faster – a definite plus
when you’re a slow swimmer like me), but I was trying to vanquish the ghosts of
last year’s swim. That, and the
water was the perfect temperature for a nice 600-meter swim at seven o’clock in
the morning with a few hundred new friends.
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| Waiting for the swim start |
I had two
objectives for this year’s swim:
1.)
Avoid a panic attack and overheating
2.)
Keep my heart rate way down to “save my strength” for the bike and run.
I have always had
trouble with pacing. I have to set
strict parameters on my Garmin when I’m training so that I don’t go too easy or
too hard on the bike or run.
Swimming is a little harder since I don’t’ wear my Garmin for that part,
and I am not a naturally gifted swimmer.
While I made steady
progress and kept my heart rate down, my swim time was slower than it was last
year. I’m not sure why that
was. Last year, I had to stop
repeatedly because I couldn’t breathe and was overheated. This year I had no excuse. Perhaps it was the wetsuit last year
that helped, but no, my time from the year before with no wetsuit was even
faster. I got kicked multiple
times in the ribs and other body parts which was new, but that shouldn’t have
slowed me down too much. Perhaps I
was focused so much on keeping my heart rate low that I was just too leisurely. That darn pacing again! Oh well, it’s just something to work
on.
As transitions
from swim to bike go for sprint triathlons, Iron Girl Atlanta isn’t what I’d
call “super-fun” to quote Elle Woods.
Transition is up a steep, albeit short hill. Most people are a bit wobbly and slightly disoriented when
they come out of the swim and then you have to run up a hill to find your bike
among hundreds. My goal for T1 (as
it’s called) this year was just to run up that hill and all the way to my
bike. Did it. Last year I was sucking wind and walked
almost the entire way to T1.
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As triathlons in
the South go, this race is a bit hilly for the newbies. There are a couple of hills that you
always see ladies walking their bikes up.
I always try to cheer them on because as any of my tri buddies will tell
you, I am not a big fan of hills on the bike! Even I resort to “granny gear” on a couple of them and then
have to standing up to pedal going up the last little hill into transition. Yes, there is another hill going into
T2 (bike to run). It’s the same
area, but you come at the transition area from a different angle – street vs.
beach.
Because of my
marathon training, I have not been devoting as much time to my bike training as
I normally would at this point in the season. While my bike time was not bad, it wasn’t as good as I would
have hoped. On the bright side, I
clocked my fastest maximum speed ever – 39.9 mph. There’s a hill midway through the bike course that’s a doozy
of a downhill. That’s the fun
part. The bad part is it goes into
a left turn. The bad part for me
is that I hit a bit of traffic (other cyclists) on the way down and had to hit
my brakes. I’m a bit of a speed
junky, so I loved the rush of going that fast! I wonder how fast I could have gotten up to had I not
encountered those other racers…
On the way in from
the bike leg, I saw and heard an ambulance heading out. I always say a silent prayer for whomever
it is they are rushing to help. I
found out later that it was a young woman, Kirsten Walker, who had a horrible
crash and is still in ICU with multiple fractures and a head injury. Thankfully, several other racers that
were near enough stopped and assist her until the EMTs arrived. Those ladies probably saved her
life. If you would like to follow
her story you can check out the story on the Swim.Bike.Mom website:
Swim.Bike.Mom has
set up a donation site to help the family cover Kirsten’s medical
expenses.
Her family also has
a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/PrayersForKirstenMeadWalker
Please check them out.
While it’s great
fun to race, injury is always a real possibility. Life is precious.
Enjoy it!
So, on to the run –
I clocked my fastest 5K time EVER!
That’s even including stand-alone 5Ks. Granted most of my 5Ks these days are with at least one of
the kids, but still… Poor Joe who
was playing tri-Sherpa almost missed me coming into the finish chute because he
wasn’t expecting me for another five minutes. He was wearing his bright pink Go, Gen. Go shirt so I saw
him through the trees when I was still about a quarter of a mile from the
finish so I have him a MFS (Matchette Family Salute) and a shout out and then
sprinted to the finish smile intact and breathing relatively well. A little puff on my inhaler at
the finish line and I was back to normal.
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| Isn't the medal pretty this year? |
Another race is
officially in the books. I
finished in the top twenty percent overall. Not a bad way to start the day.
Linda and Kim both
finished strong. It was so great
to see them at the finish line, to hug them and welcome Kim into the fold. She’s already signed up for another
race and Linda’s contemplating her next one.
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| Ready to head home! |
After a quick bite
to eat and hanging out with Kim and Linda’s families, I took some wipes into
the bathroom, cleaned up a bit, rinsed out my hair (Why is it that just having
clean hair makes one feel cleaner overall?) and we were on our way. Josie and Michelle had music recitals
in the afternoon that we couldn’t miss.
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