When You See My Medal And Cap, You Will Understand

There are some very funny videos out there poking fun at people training for Triathlons - particularly the full 140.6  One has a person working through some serious injuries, with someone else questioning their sanity.  The reply?  “When you see my medal and cap, you will understand.”  I sort of adopted it as my mantra leading up to last week's Ironman 70.3 in Wilmington, NC. 

I had run into some issues during training, a kidney stone and a couple of upper respiratory infections, including one the week of the race - I took my last antibiotic the morning of the race.  But I was pretty sure I would still make the cut-off time.  I had taken a great swim lesson a few weeks earlier and started working on technique, which seemed to help.  And the swim is known to be fast due to current and I was hoping that would help. Went to bed early, about 9:30PM and woke up promptly at 1:30AM race day.  Not worried or concerned, just woke up.   3 hours earlier than intended.  Oh well.

 Got to T1, did some last minute prep and shuttled over to the start.  Beautiful sunrise.  And we waited until our wave hit the water.  I felt pretty good and my brother was a good guide through the swim, his spotting is great.  By the time we hit the end of the swim, it was 12 minutes faster than my first 70.3 swim and 12 minutes faster than what I had done on the swim leg of an Olympic Relay about a month earlier.  Was pretty happy.

T1 was slow for me, trying to get my wetsuit in the bag they gave took longer than expected and rand into a couple of other issues, so lost about a minute relative to my first 70.3 - but still ahead by 11 minutes. 

Then off to the bike.  Felt good going out and about 40 miles into the bike picked up some time compared to the first 70.3  I was making sure not to overexert myself because I had time in the bank, and if I held that I would have plenty of time for the run.  Then it happened.  The tailwind coming back never happened, it was still a headwind.  I kept my cadence and power and tried to keep my average speed where it was.  But it kept on dropping.  And dropping.  And the bike course was 57.7 miles, not 56 miles.  So by the time I was off the bike I was 20 minutes behind my pace from my first 70.3

There was still a chance to make it and I started running, but about 200 yards in my left quad took issue.  Incredible cramp and lock-up.  It was like a grapefruit had made itself at home.  I continued walking and working the cramp out.  Then I would try to run a bit and when I got close to the speed I needed to maybe make it, lock up/cramp.  About two miles in developed a bit of a headache and also realized it was going to be real close, but looking less than possible.  I thought of stopping for a brief instant, but kept on going.   

I kept on passing mile markers, but by 5 miles in it was pretty clear 8:30 was not going to happen.  We made it to the turnaround and headed back.  We were the last ones.   Cones got picked up behind us and I kept on moving, trying to run and not looking back.  I knew if I looked back, they would say it was time to stop.  I would slow to drink a bit, then tried running some more.  A bit past the 10 mile marker, a van pulled up.  The day was done.  We still had about 10 minutes of time left, and some other people still further up the course were able to finish, but we were done.  They gave us the option to go to T2 to get our things, or be dropped off about 100 yards from the finish line and be allowed to go through and get a medal and a hat.  They basically said we deserved it for the work and effort (there were others picked up in the sweep earlier) so we did that.  Despite falling short, we smiled and laughed as we crossed the finish line. 

We wound up doing 69.20 miles of a 70.3 mile race due to the extra on the bike course.  So we almost kind of finished.  It has been a bit over a year since I did my first 70.3  And had three radiation treatments and 21 rounds of chemo since then.  So while I am disappointed that I fell a bit short.  I have been thinking about that the last three days as I have been sitting on my couch hooked up to chemo round #22  Making plans to do two 70.3s next year.  One early in the season and then back to NC

Happy Anniversary Cancer Recurrence

Two years ago today I opened up the report from CT scan. It was one of those times I expected good news - 80-85% of recurrences of my cancer comes back in two years. This scan was two years, three months. Thought I made it. (The lung met was there from the beginning, just small, so I was counting from the very beginning 😀) But it looked like it was in the lungs and lymph nodes.

A scan two months later showed it was progressing fast. I started Triathlon training.

Today, like last year, I found race to do for the anniversary of the cancer coming back. A 5K. But the course was complicated and somehow I missed a section. So it wound up being 2.71 miles for me. I blame chemo 😜

I went through things and came up with some stats.

Since this all started

33 Chemotherapy Treatments
21 CT Scans
7 MRIS
5 X-Rays
3 Pet Scans
3 Radiation Treatments
3 Sugeries
2 Needle Biopsies

22 of the chemo sessions have been since October, 2018.

From the time I started training up to me having to go back on chemo last October:

3 Sprint Triathlons (solo)
4 5K Races
1 1/2 Marathon
1 Ironman 70.3

Since being back on chemo (all in 2019):

3 Sprint Triathlon Relays
3 Sprint Triathlons Solo
1 Olympic Triathlon Relay
2 5K
1 7.6K

I do not feel like have trained enough, but giving a shot at another 70.3 next weekend. (Looking at the general numbers, I have logged more miles on the bike and runs than last year, the swim about 1/2, but I still not feeling 100% compared to last year. ) Really want to make the cut-off time, will see. Also have another 5K, a 1/2 Marathon and a Sprint Triathlon on schedule through the end of the year.

Next big date will be in February, 2020. Five years from my first surgery. The 5 year survival rate is 10%. II am looking at races for then right now, never been one to rely too much on stats 😉