IRONMAN CAIRNS 2014

Driving along the Cairns coast line window down, thick warm air blowing past, incasing my arm as it hangs out the window held up effortlessly by the the pressure of the moving air. Eyes following a bird soaring high in the air, easy to pin point out with its whiteness in stark contrast against the intensity of the blue, cloudless sky. I close my eyes and the warmth of the sun on my face is pure bliss…….. until I realise that somethings missing……. then reality hits and I am pulled back from my moment of day dream, and remember that whats missing is that its Tuesday the 10th june 2014, two days post Ironman Cairns and I am driving up to Port Douglas with Marc to enjoy what has ended up been the only day since he got here that has not been cold and raining, only thing is that like I said its two days post Ironman Cairns and whats missing is that highly sort after feeling and familiar  post race ache in the body. A mix of dehydration and plain micro muscle damage that one experiences after pushing the body to its extremes, putting everything on the line and drawing on all that passion, hard work and hours of training that has been previously banked in the build up to the race, to see how fast and how far one can go…. that indescribable sense of satisfaction, and been an ironman I would say relief of knowing how deep you had to dig… and seeing how well you pulled up on the other side….. However the only pain I had was the headache I had from the pressure in my sinuses and the thickness in my chest from the Chest and Sinus infection that was still hanging around and that had robbed me of my chance to race Ironman Cairns.

I am not going to go into huge details but the basic outline is that I arrived in Cairns Sunday 1st June one week prior to the race. I had a fantastic home stay called Lucy in the perfect location and even had her little dog Baxter to keep me company as I let my body winde  down and freshen pre race.

Things had been a bit stressful in the week leaving for Cairns but once I arrived I felt settled and by Tuesday night I found myself sitting in the Cairns promenade eating my pre race fat load dinner thinking how ironic it was that i was siting here eating a hamburger and on Sunday I would be running past this exact spot in the Marathon league of an Ironman….. I knew I would remember this moment during the race and tried to tell myself to use this to make me giggle a bit inside no matter how the race was going. I remember leaving that spot and feeling like I was finally in a really good spot I was nervous of course but excited and really felt I was living the Dream. Cairns was the first place i went and trained abroad and raced as a pro triathlete and here I was 3 years later returning to step up and race the full.

But life does have a way of throwing us some decent curve balls and things kinda went down hill from there. I woke Wednesday morning with a sore throat and feeling crap, both my coach and I tied to discard it as just something minor that can happen during pre race taper, and that is what I continued to tell myself as the week progressed, despite the fact that i felt like I was progressively getting worse. I did my best to carry on with training as planned as it wasn't much anyways this close in to race day, but the thing is I was getting progressively more shattered as the week went on not fresher…. which I knew in my gut wasn't right but ever the optimist I continued to try and trust  that when I woke up Sunday I would be better.

However by Friday I was starting to realise things weren't so good. I remember doing a 20min easy swim in my wetsuit and rolling over to do a bit of back stroke and hearing this deep rasping noise and wandering what it was only to click that actually it was me inhaling……It actually gave me a bit of a shock and a reality check that maybe my chest was worse than I thought.

Despite that onwards and up wards Saturday went ahead as planned, despite feeling progressively worse as the day went and coughing up more and more crap out of my lungs. I did my best to put up a healthy front at the race brief and it was a mission not to have a coughing fit….. not a good look to start hacking up green crap the night before an Ironman in a pro briefing …. or maybe just a good way to empty a room fast….

I was doing my best to stay light hearted about everything and just concentrate on the race ahead, but its a hard place to be in when its the eve of the event you have spent months and so many hours of hard grind working towards and you should be in a space of freshness and strength eager to unleash it all the next day, yet my body was a shadow of its self and felt like it was fading away as the day progressed. Coming home that afternoon post briefing, Pre (My Cervelo) racked and ready in anticipation and I was seroiusly struggling to get up the one flight of stairs up to our first floor hotel room.

Saturday night was a rough one and when the alarm finally went off at 4am although I got up on automatic and started to get into the pre race routine, I didn't get  very far until i was held with yet another coughing fit however today the infection was in the sinuses and the chest so crap was coming out my chest and nose and i was in a really bad way. I guess thankfully at that point even though it was such a heart retching decision to have to make that I knew it was pretty black and white there was no way I could race. I was in contact with my coach in Boulder and he and Marc made the decision for me, I was in no state to even start.

So Sunday June the 8th was spent in a pretty budget hotel room bed feeling like crap, with cough mixture, panadol and lots of fluids. Not the day I had been envisioning in my mind on all the long training sessions in the weeks leading in thats for sure, but I guess if I had the mental toughness to race an ironman I had the strength to get through this day despite how sucky it felt.

So for what ever reasons Cairns was not meant to be. I have no doubt that I made the right decision however it doesn't make it any easier. The fact is I had put the work in, I was ready to race and I was in a really good space, and I am totally gutted that I didn't get that chance to express all the training I had done.

Of course though thats the nature of the game sometimes, it can be harsh world. but once I am back into  full health and training again I will be gearing up for my next race and another ironman, my time will come I just obviously will have to be patient!