Catriona Morrison

Check out Tri247.com for my end of season article!

This is a story from my friend Roger. I met him at 70.3 Monaco, only a week after he had completed the world long course triathlon in Almere. Sometimes we  have bad races, Roger’s Kona experience puts things into perspective!

My Day in Kona 10/7/08

The day started out fine.  I had a good enough swim.  I came out of the water and started to ride.  The sun was intense with no clouds anywhere.  I rode out easy trying not to push it.  I had planned to do the race on water and Powergel every 30 to 45 minutes.  But I had stomach issues again.  It seems that my digestion has slowed down even more than my legs.

By mile 30, I was gagging on Powergel.  I kept riding to Hawi with just water where I picked up a diet coke and a bottle of chicken broth.  I drank the coke and worked on the chicken broth.  I got sick just before Waikaloa and pulled back on even water.  I thought that I could make it in.  The head winds coming back were as strong as I could remember. 

I felt that I could push in the last 25 miles ok but it turned out that I couldn’t.  I was obviously dehydrated.  I began to have trouble holding my line.  By the time I got to the AP, I was all over the place.  A medical van stopped in front of me and offered me a ride in but said they couldn’t take my bike so I kept going. A second medical van came up beside me about 10 miles out and coached me to get me to the finish line.  The NBC camera crew in a convertible followed along with us.  They must to have been on me for 30 minutes.  From the energy lab on in, I was Julie Moss on a bike. I hope that I don’t make the telecast.

At one point I stopped to get water from the van and fell and rolled under it.  At least I think I rolled under it and it didn’t drive up to me.  I vaguely remember my head against its front wheel and someone from the van talking to me.  I had to ask them to back it up. They should have thrown me in the back but maybe they were caught up in the filming.

Somehow I made it to the top of Makala and flew down.  I remember wondering exactly where I was. I don’t know how I negotiated that that fast down hill without killing myself. 

I finally got to the hot corner at Palani and turned right on the sharp short downhill to transition.  It must have surprised me.  I went flying down with little control.  I braked before hitting the orange lane dividing cones and flew over the bars. I split open a cut over my right eye and crunched my shoulder.

I walked the 50 feet to the finish line. 

grabbed me and put me in the medical tent.  There were 5 Dr.s around me at one point.  They sewed up my eye and plugged me into an IV.  They did an EKG on me found that I was in atrial fibrillation.  I must have been in a-fib for an hour out there. I was shipped 45 minutes away to the Kona emergency ward in Captain Cook.  There they injected medication into my IV and I went back to a normal heart beat. 

I stayed in the hospital another 4 hours to verify that my heart was ok.  Having nothing but a messed up racing singlet and bike shorts, they were kind enough to give me a pair of jeans and a T shirt from a good will bag.  As I stood on the steps of the hospital at midnight I was freezing so I went back inside and found a garbage bag on a janitor’s cart, chewed a whole in it for my head and waited for the cab.  Eventually I got back to the King K. 

Since I’ve returned I have had my stitches removed but found that I fractured the tip of my scapula when I crashed. 

While riding since I returned I remembered that I had my biked tweaked up just before the race and the brakes were tight.  I like them a lot softer but I would have had to loosen the cable so I didn’t bother.  When I was going to hit the cones near the finish of the bike, I must have jammed the brakes and locked the back wheel and gone over the top.  My body damage and the fact that only the right aero bar was bent on the bike indicates that I must have gone completely upside down, slamming my head and shoulder to the pavement.

It’s so frustrating to put so much into an event like this only to have allowed dehydration supersede training, gear, rest diet etc.  I know, I know, I should have been a lot smarter. I’ve already qualified for Kona next year so I have to try to redeem myself.  I have devised an IV supported by a rod that attaches directly to my bike seat to avoid this problem again.

Next I’m booked for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in

Roger

Mr Pelican eyes up my dinner. 

It wasn’t a great race and I was expecting more. Perhaps I was expecting too much? But if you don’t set yourself high targets you will never achieve great things and 7^th in the World is not too bad considering the bellyache of a season that I’ve had. I was feeling great in the lead up to the race. I had some good swim training and some strong bike weeks behind me. My running had been hit or miss with the achillies cortisone a month ago and then last week I twisted my ankle when I was out on one of the few runs that I had managed to get under my belt!

Still, I’m not going to bitch and complain and make excuses. I was just not all there on race day – way off the pace on the swim (even by my swim standards), solid on the bike and feeling like something the cat dragged in on the run.

Hey hoo, the competition was immense and it was great to see the level step up once again, it makes us all motivated to train even harder! That’s of course after I’ve had a well earned break. So far I’ve been deep sea fishing (or rather I’ve watched my dad catch some fishies that we’ll eat for dinner tonight) and today I am off to pamper myself at a rather exclusive spa. I was given a gift basket from WTC for being in the top ten last year. I think that the therapists were a bit confused when I couldn’t really tell them what I wanted done. I’ve never been to a beautician before (I know hard to believe really- har har) so I’ve asked for whatever I can get that fits into the $100 gift card! Before that, I’m off for my annual haircut. Talk about pushing the boat out!

Thanks hugely to everyone for their support this year: friends, family, medical miracle makers and all my sponsors. Bring on 2009.

What a stunner. Blue sky, cool (but not unbearable) temperatures and NO WIND which is very very rare in this part of the world. A great time to do a taper pootle bike ride. Off to Florida on Wednesday where I imagine that the sun will have a bit more heat in it!