Race Report: Iron Girl Columbia.

This will be a short one.

Did not race.

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That doesn’t suffice?

Well. This week, I came to accept the excitement of the Iron Girl with none of the jitters. I came to embrace my A race of the season, and by Friday I was truly looking forward to it, 100%. The expo yesterday was fantastic. The bike check-in, the course talk, the walk around the venue with Denise and her husband Matt, everything was great. The hotel was lots of fun. And there were women triathletes everywhere. What power!

I went to bed after my customary conversations with Mike and Mom in turn, and my mind was teeming with enthusiasm for the next day’s events. This is, after all, THE race of the season. The longest course I’ve ever done. The coolest venue and the best people. And the biggest crowd! And medals! All finishers would get medals!

I went to bed straightaway and woke up an hour later with chills. And a slight headache. And muscle aches in my legs. And a stomachache.

I could handle everything but the stomachache.

After that first wake-up call at 11:45 p.m., I woke up nearly every hour with flu-bug symptoms – hot, then cold, then hot, my pulse racing as it always does when I get a fever. When I woke up “for real” at 4:15 a.m., my body was so bedraggled it took me awhile to even get my bearings enough to stand up for any extended period of time.

But I wanted to compete. I’d been looking forward to this race for so long, and now it was here, and now I was sick. I couldn’t let that stop me.

I continued to feel badly as I drove to the park, and when we arrived Denise suggested I go check with Medical to see what they thought. The medic looked at me and advised me not to race. She said she couldn’t stop me if I decided that I HAD to race, but as a triathlete herself, she wouldn’t do it in my condition and she urged me not to either. With no energy, barely enough to walk back and forth to the transition area, it was a recipe for disaster.

So I turned my chip in, plucked my bike from the transition stall, and headed back to the car.

It has broken me down today, I’ve gotta admit. I feel both sick (though recovering) and sad. I know there was nothing I could do about this, but it’s human nature, I think, to want things to go better than they did today.

So much for the end of my tri season. I can’t let it end this way. So I’ll be racing on Sept. 30. It’s close to the marathon, I know, but it’s a small triathlon and shouldn’t put me under too much strain.

I’d race next weekend if I could find one nearby. I want to finish this season on a good note – not on a sick bed.

:)