Rss/XmlAnd you thought YOU suffered in a race
In my last post, I mentioned some of the most debilitating and shameful events that inflicted me while racing, and threw out a call for additional tales of woe. Jody Zwicky, one of the Original Gangstahs of AR, has given me a terrific recount of a race she slogged through in Brazil.
I'll forward that ugly memo in our next installment. But today's breaking news is this report from Rebecca Rusch. She just got back from Scotland, where 49 teams lined up for the Adventure Racing World Championships.
To say the race was brutal is to indulge in pale language. Only five teams finished. Rebecca, one of the top racers in the world for years, was a member of the gallant Swedish Team Bjufors. They did finish, but just barely. Check out what nearly a week of racing in the moors will do to you:
"I got up a bit early to get my ankle and shin taped. I had rolled my ankle on the first day multiple times and was suffering from some pretty serious pain in my ankle and shin. It only hurt when I walked though! Anyway, the medics did a great job of immobilizing it for the remainder of the race. While I was getting my ankle taped, the medic commented on my nasty cough. She listened to my lung sounds and concluded that I indeed had a lung infection and should go on antibiotics for the rest of the race. As I was finishing up with the medics, my teammate Per came over and informed me that we had to check out of that transition within 15 minutes or we'd be cut off of the long course. We were all in shock and rushed to get out of the transition. Normally race cut off times are for the middle and back of the pack teams. Being in the top five, we never even took note of the cut off times and were totally unaware of this one when we went to sleep. It's lucky that we didn't opt for a 3 hr nap or we would have slept straight through the cut off. Many other world class teams behind us were also unaware of the strict cut off and ended up missing it.
We set off on what we estimated to be a 20 hr trek with a brutal amount of elevation. Shortly into the trek, I ended up losing my lunch, so to speak and was struggling to keep food down. I was able to eat a little, but not enough to come close to match the calories we were expending. Needless to say, our pace on the uphills slowed dramatically with me feeling less than 100%. The descents felt better for me, but worse for Per. He was starting to suffer from tendonitis in the front of his shin and the downhills were extremely painful for him. Our combined ailments along with the fact that we were out there alone with no one to race, seemed to slow our motivation. About 3/4 of the way through the trek, we came across a checkpoint with a large tent. I think it was 2 am. It was howling wind and we were just about to ascend onto another long ridge walk. They allowed us into the tent, so we opted to sleep until sunrise at 3:30 am. As we were waking up, Per was talking about how much his leg hurt and if he should tape it. In mid sentence, he laid back and started twitching. His eyes were unfocused and he did not recognize us for about 10 seconds. My first thought was that he'd had a seizure. The checkpoint person called a medic and we waited there about 30 minutes to have the medic check him out. In the meantime, we were keeping him warm, he was coherent, but felt nauseous. After a thorough, hour long exam, some hot food, more rest, Per was officially released by the medic and told he could continue on. I think it was 5 or 6 am by the time we finally left that checkpoint. We left there pretty scared about Per, but he was determined to finish the course.The remainder of the race was just to finish and maintain our 5th place ranking. Obviously, we were all worried about Per, but the medic assured us that he had literally just fainted from the pain, low blood pressure and the physical exertion."
Fainting from pain, low blood pressure and exertion, and then finishing the ARWC? Hats off to Bjufors, and a good reminder that no matter how much you think you're suffering your next race, it's all relative.
