So I have just been admitted to Royal Brisbane & Women’s
Hospital for my second round of radio-active iodine treatment. Later this
afternoon I will be given a capsule of this to hopefully knock my cancer on the
head once and for all! Thankfully the only real side-effects of this treatment
is some nausea and dryness of the mouth. The only problem is once I have the
pill they close the door and I then spend the next four days in isolation as my
body is radio-active and quite dangerous to others. They kindly look after my
exercise addiction by putting the ward exercise bike in my room. I have also
bought a skipping rope with me and have planned a ‘brick session’ of bike/
skipping. I’m actually looking forward to a few days down time as things have
been busy in life, training, racing and getting on with things.
My ride for the next 4 days
This time three weeks ago I was waking up in Noumea (New Caledonia),
riding through the cycling park there, eating numerous French pastries,
enjoying some warm sunshine and getting ready to race! This was my 5th
visit to Noumea and 4th time there racing Noumea International Triathlon.
It’s a fantastic race in its 29th year and was the last
international race I did before I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. I was
happy to be invited back and looked forward to seeing how things were
progressing with my training and health since racing Dalby in late March.
The
field was small and I suddenly realised how old I am getting (30 in 5weeks!)
with my main competition from two young kiwi girls (20 and 21!!!). Knowing full
aware of how fast Reubyn could run and Deborah could swim I knew I had my work
cut out for me and a ripping bike leg would be key to success. Race morning is
a civil start of 8am and as our accommodation was across the road from
transition it was a pleasant start to the day. A little after 8am we were off
in a manic mass start! The ocean is clear and flat in Noumea and the two lap swim
can differ significantly in distance year to year….. last year I swam 18mins
and this year 24, even though I know I’m swimming well! I I came out in 2nd.
The bike course is 3 laps and a mix of flat and fast and a couple of notable
hills! The first two laps I was putting time into 1st and distancing
myself from third. I will admit however, that I lost a bit of focus on the
third lap and caught myself day dreaming a couple of times and didn’t make any
headway here, although I doubt it would have affected the overall result. I
came off the bike in 2nd and felt dreadful heading out on to the
flat four lap course. By the end of the first lap a blazing Reubyn came past me
and I said to ‘you can win this’ knowing that 1st was only about a
minute up the road. I knew the other pro girls were a long, long way behind me
so unless I passed out or broke a leg as long as I kept running at my (slow) pace
I was going to stay on the podium. I finished about 3minutes behind 1st
and was happy with my overall effort but also humbled by knowing I still have a
long way to go in regaining fitness, speed and endurance. The nice thing about
doing this Sunday morning race is not heading home until Tuesday morning and
having a day to enjoy the beach, relax and hang out with my wingman Shane for a
day and a half post-race.
Men and Women's podium Noumea Triathlon
Off the plane and straight back into work and training the
next day as it was only just over a week until my next race, Byron Bay
Triathlon. Unfortunately the lead up wasn’t as pleasant as hoped. I felt pretty
awful until about a day before the race. Fatigued, dizzy, headaches and a huge
lack of energy made me feel as though I was regressing in health. A year or two
ago I wouldn’t have worried as sometimes we athletes expect that to be the
norm. Now, however, after what I’ve been through I can’t but help think of the
worst. I packed up my stuff, took Friday off work and headed down to Byron. I
felt okay and was being rigid with hydrating (Nuun’s are my lifesaver!) and
good nutrition. I was staying with good friends Prue and Chris from the
Sunshine Coast in the heart of Byron Bay. Having those friends outside of the
sport is exactly what I need in order to keep relaxed pre-race. With the civil
start of 12:11pm on Saturday afternoon I didn’t have to set an alarm clock in
order to get up before dawn. I had breaky, casually strolled down to register,
racked my bike and re-ate breakfast two hours before race start! That’s the
only problem with racing at a different time is knowing when/ how much to eat!
I stick with a repeat of my normal pre-race breaky two hours before race start!
Just before race start, chatting with mate Pip Taylor
Down on the beach I went for a quick dip to test out the extremely obvious
current! Thankfully the push was from east to west!!! The issue though was
where to enter the water in order to not miss the first three buoys which were
pretty much straight out to sea from the race start. All the open women took
their cue from the boys who left before us, running east up the beach before
hitting the surf. It actually wasn’t as bad as I anticipated and once again
ended up just behind Sarah Crowley for the entire 1.5km swim (which felt much
longer!!). We’ve been racing each other for a number of years now and we can
pretty much count on coming out within arm’s reach of each other, this time
Sarah just in front of me. I knew Pip and Sarah Deuble would be up the road at
this point and was hoping that I’d be able to do enough to move into podium
contention over the course of the bike/run. Sarah Crowley is a far stronger
cyclist than me, navigated her way around the cars on the open road to move
into 2nd by the turn around and put a solid minute (or more!) into
me by that point.
Coming back into T2 I was just happy to survive the bike
course as it’s one of the most dangerous I have ever done, just in negotiating
the vehicles on the road. Sarah Deuble was in T2 putting her shoes on as I racked
my bike and I exited just behind her. She’s a fantastic runner and soon disappeared
up the road. I was instantly annoyed as I thought my run training had been
going forward…… however I was pleasantly surprised see my Garmin telling me 3:50 pace, Sarah D
was just running faster! I felt quite good and was on the hunt for Pip as I
knew her run training had been marred by a recent leg injury. I was thoroughly disappointed
as I finished my first run lap to realise that the run course had been altered
and each lap was 400m too short….. meaning I only had 8.4km to catch third and
not 10km. I find it difficult to understand why they would alter a course,
knowing that in previous years the distance was correct. My old coach, Grant
Giles, gave me words of encouragement at the end of each lap that I was closing
in on 3rd. By the last lap I had her in my sights and was really
pushing myself to make the pass before my real estate ran out. Around the final
bend and I could see her cross the line about 12seconds in front of me. I would
be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed because I was gutted to come in just
off the podium in 4th. You can never be certain that another 1.6km
would have guaranteed me moving up into 3rd but having a full 10km
there to try would have been nice. The positive is that my run has definitely improved
and is coming back to what I was previously capable of, averaging below 3:54
pace for the run. Full credit to my great mate Pip for hanging in there for 3rd
with what she was carrying into the race, and of course to Sarah for the win.
I enjoyed dinner that night with good friends Marc and Ilana
and a few cheeky drinks at the Beach Hotel before hitting the bakery on the way
home. The next day I had the most amazing swim across the bay with Chris, which
unlike the day before, it was calm, clear and absolutely stunning. I had a
lovely lunch with very good friends Luke and Lisa before heading home to cram
4.5 days of training and work in before my hospital admission.
I still haven’t been feeling great but have managed to still
get a few solid days of training in as I am planning on racing Coral Coast 5150
in 2 weeks time. Perhaps the enforced rest the next few days will be exactly
what the doctor prescribes (pardon the pun!)!!! As far as the cancer goes,
after the next few days I will go for nuclear scans and ultrasounds to see
where I stand. The downer is the effectiveness of this treatment won’t be known
until three months down the track at my oncology review. That’s it with cancer
though, just one day to the next and live each one like it’s your last.
Rachie xox
