Nadia's Race Report: First 1/2 Iron....first triathlon period.
So first off, I now realize I was fighting something the whole time!! My dad was kind of under the weather, and last night I was quite fevered and swollen glands. So that really did not help my day! For the swim, my wetsuit was not on quite right and was choking me the whole time which I have never had happen before, but of course, for the race it did
Then when I got to the bike I was finding myself extremely out of breath, very unusual to what i am normally like. So i just thought well give me 5-10 km I'll be warmed up and no problems! well that sure didn't happen, my shortness of breath continued for the entire race, and i was finding my muscles were fatiguing and burning very quickly. Also my stomach was absolutely upside down the whole bike, and I almost puked numerous times. I have never had a problem with eating before swimming or biking, and besides which, I ate almost 2 hours before I started biking! It was the worst feeling ever, like a burning mass in my stomach that I kept burping up every 2 minutes! (sorry I guess I could have spared those details!) Then a little less than half way into the bike, a wasp flew in behind my sunglasses and lached onto the corner of my eye and stung me. I, of course, freaked out and stopped the bike trying to pull the wasp off of my eye. The guys from the bike barn vehicle stopped and helped dig the stinger out of my eye that was left behind. Its strange because i am not normally that emotional to pain, but I was baulling!!! Definately sure that I was fighting something because I do get very emotional when I'm sick. So I managed to finish the bike, my legs almost ready to fall off, and I was thinking, what the heck is wrong with me!! I rode 160km and was not near as bad as this!! As for my mind power, I felt so weak and defeated! 10 km into the bike I wanted to give up! So yeah I definately knew that something was not quite right. Anyway, headed off to the run thinking "20km, you have got to be kidding me!!" Only went like 500 metres and extreme shortness of breath and burning burning calves!! That is why I was walking when you passed me. So finally made the one loop and stopped at the aid station by the finish for some water, and started coughing. I felt like my lungs were full of fluid! so i kept coughing, and then I was like oh shit!......I taste blood! Sure enough, I spat out a bunch of blood, and the volunteers started freaking out. They were all saying "you have to stop, pull out and we'll call an ambulence!" It would not have mattered if the whole entire crowd had told me to stop, there was no freaking way I was pulling out! I had come this far, and suffered this much (just as much mentally as physically through the race), I would have crawled on my hands and knees that last 10km to finish. So I walked past the all the spectators, (my mom and dad, Ginny and Andrew and Reese and Karen were all there) and they obviously new something was wrong because tears were streaming down my face. They too told me it wasn't worth it, but I think it was
That was the hardest 10km I have ever had to do in my life, just walking was extremely hard to breath. Everyone that passed me was probably wondering what the heck was going on, why is she crying!! The last 5 km I was sort of able to walk/run, and I did run the last kilometer to the finish line! You have no idea the joy I experienced for finishing!!! So I can say that I finished inspite of everything, I am NOT a quitter!! So anyway everyone thought that I should go get a checkup which was a good idea, and the doc said i probably broke a blood vessal in the lung. I usually seem to have alot more problems with my lungs when I'm under the weather, so that was probably a good part of it. Anyway I am definately feeling better today, but my stomach is still off, haven't been able to eat much, and my lungs feel a little tight but not too bad. Legs and shoulders are definately sore!
Was it worth it,......HELL YEAH!!!!
