European Duathlon

European Duathlon Championships, Holland

21^st April 2013

It’s funny how quickly things turned around for me in March, going from 2 great qualifying races to hospitalisation!  Preparations for this had easily been the worst preparations I’ve ever had (and that’s saying something as the European Duathlon 2011 was 4 weeks after having my tonsils out and the European Triathlon 2012 came off the back of a kidney infection!). 

Without going into all the boring details the 5 weeks leading up to this race went something like this: Sunday 17^th March, won the final qualifier, felt great, loved life. Trained on the Monday. Swam on the Tuesday morning. Felt on top of the world. 4 hours later felt sick. Then felt sicker. Was doubled over in agony with stomach cramps.  Tried to sleep it off.  Chris came home and I couldn’t get up off the floor.  Rushed into hospital.  Admitted for a few nights, on a drip with lots drugs.  Lots of tests.  Came out of hospital on strong antibiotics, 6 a day for 14 days.  Felt sick for the whole 14 days.  Antibiotics finished so tried a run.  Felt weak.  Hurt my calf but was panicking about lack of training so ran through it.  Next day couldn’t walk – calf was agony.  The day after tried another run (silly really!).  Completed the run session but had awful stomach cramps (not to mention the calf).  Went out for dinner with Chris to cheer myself up.  Started crying into my dinner because my stomach was so painful.  Went back into hospital.  Was told by the consultant not to run because it was causing a shift of fluid around my stomach that caused severe cramps.  Obviously wasn’t happy with this answer and thought I would give it a bit of time to settle and try again.  The following week before the race was spent trying to fix my calf and feel strong again. “Mind over matter” I thought!

Me and my number one fan!

Chris had told me to go to the race with no expectations but despite everything I still had the memories of feeling so strong at the qualifiers and the thought that if my body behaved on race day there was no reason why I couldn’t pull a good performance out of the bag.  So off we went! Chris, Mum, my team mate Jacqui, her husband Mark and I, 4 bikes and hundreds of bags into the van and off we went to Horst – and what a lovely place it was! We stayed in Centre Parcs just a few miles from the town centre and it was fab! We had a great time jogging around the paths, cycling on the straightest and flattest roads in the world and whizzing down the water slides and round the splash pool!!!  

Enjoying a drink or two in Horst

We only had a day to enjoy before it was race day.  Unfortunately on race day things just didn’t go my way.  The first 5 minutes of the run were great, it was flat it was fast and it was exciting.  I closed down the German who got a good start and knew some of the others were stronger runners but planned to race my own race....but just past half way of the first lap the most painful stomach cramps came and I had to ease back slightly.  My team mate Jacqui ran alongside me and I thought it would be good to let her drag me round but I quickly slipped further and further behind and felt my eyes welling up because of the pain.  The thought of dropping out has never crossed my mind in a major championship and I hoped the pain would subside but it didn’t.  The bike and second run was just as bad and when I crossed the line in fourth place I felt sick and dizzy and everything around me seemed a blur.  I sat on the bench at the finish feeling very sorry for myself and although I was surrounded by a huge hustle and bustle of excited athletes, it seemed a very lonely place.  At the time I couldn’t see any positives in what I had just done but now on reflection I realise it was a great achievement to battle through. 

Running pain free in the beginning

As I made my way out of the finishing tent I did manage to speak to some lovely athletes afterwards, particularly a girl called Charlotte who told me she had seen some of my previous results and felt inspired and I could have hugged her at that moment for reminding me that I had done well to get to where I am.  I saw Mum and Chris and burst out crying, so silly really – it’s only a race – but it is also accompanied with the frustration of not quite knowing what is wrong and how long it will take to be fixed.  At the finish I also saw Jacqui who had done amazingly to win her Age Group convincingly and added yet another title to her many achievements.  I hope one day to achieve the kind of things that Jacqui has.  I was lucky to have Mark and Jacqui and Chris and Mum at that point to cheer me up and remind me that I hadn’t let anyone down and I hadn’t let myself down.

Proud of Jacqui - European Duathlon Champion

So many people had helped me to prepare for this race – Paul for his no nonsense approach to everything, Russell for taping my calf up in some rather swanky GB tape, Stu and Mark for helping with my running, not to mention my family and friends for all their support.  Thank you to everyone for actually getting me on the start line!

I am glad that I gave it my best shot and I would have rather have gone and not succeeded than stayed at home and wondered “what if”?   So it’s back to the docs tomorrow in search of a proper diagnosis and back to researching and reading up on what I may be suffering from.  My stubbornness maintains that there is a good athlete in me somewhere and when I get to the bottom of these stomach problems I will be a force to be reckoned with......although I’m not entirely sure when that will be!!!