On the Tuesday evening before Durban , I had an hour-long low heart rate run on my programme and Nicola joined . Within 100m I was gasping for breath , and I was grateful for the robots stopping us , so I could try compose myself . We continued slowly , but I couldn ’ t get air into my lungs , and was worrying what on earth was wrong . I messaged Coach Dave Sullivan that something was up . I couldn ’ t breath and was lacking energy , but I didn ’ t feel sick . Could it be chlorine poisoning from all the swimming in training ? Jokingly I briefly mentioned maybe I ’ ve a blood clot ? I had read an article about Helen Ellison who had suffered from a deep vein thrombosis ( DVT ) and one of her symptoms was being unable to breathe . I told Dave I ’ d do some research and also asked him to make sure I was alive in the morning . ( Looking back , I now realise that this was not a joke !) I tried swimming the next morning , but gave up after 2km . I went out for a spin on my bike in the afternoon , to check everything was in order before I boxed it for Durban , and I felt ok … but it was just an easy spin and my heart rate seemed normal . I ditched my swim on Thursday morning – I thought I needed to get the chlorine out of my system ! I had another hour easy run planned for the evening with Dave . It was flat . It wasn ’ t easy . I was gasping for air at 6:30min / km pace , but I told Dave I would be fine by Sunday and I would
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just listen to my body and go at whatever pace I was able to .
Panic Attack
I flew up to Durban on Friday and tried to do very little except registering , walking round the expo and walking back to my hotel . Early Saturday morning I went for a 45-minute spin on my bike . Everything seemed ok … Then I went for a 20min run . I still couldn ’ t breathe , but I could walk 21km the next day if need be … Then at 10am we met on the beach for a Wingman group photo and a quick swim . Time to see how my lungs and body would cope with swimming … A small group of us swam out a few hundred metres . Thankfully the waves were tiny so I managed to have enough breath to duck under as they broke .
All of a sudden I started to panic that I wouldn ’ t be able to duck under the breakers . And what would happen if I got hit by a breaker unaware and didn ’ t have enough breath . Sam and Marinda were to my left , and I could feel myself drifting towards them . The backline was getting nearer , and fear engulfed me . And the more I panicked , the less I could breath . What was Sam going to think if I shouted for help , but her name came out my mouth before I could question myself any more . She could see the anxiety in my face and told me to keep calm . Fortunately , she realised I wasn ’ t 100 %, but tears filled my
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goggles , and the more upset I was getting the more I was gasping for air !
Suddenly Dave popped up next to us and held on to me , asking if I was ok . Poor Dave was now thinking , “ One of my best athletes , who has done several halfs and fulls , including World Champs , is having a panic attack in possibly the calmest sea conditions ever !” Sam then made me swim back out with her to make sure I was confident that I could duck under the waves , before we slowly swam back to shore . I told Dave I would be fine tomorrow , that if I wasn ’ t ok , I would stop . Racking was done and an early night was on the cards , but first a bath in bicarbonate of soda – apparently good if one has chlorine poisoning . Yes , at this point I still thought my problem was from chlorine poisoning !
Struggling Along
Thankfully the sea was as flat as a pancake on race day ! I took the swim very easy and told myself I could rest at each sighting buoy if I needed to . I tried to keep away from the washing machine effect at the turn around buoys .
However , memories from the 2015 Durban 70.3 came flooding back as I headed towards the shore , but fortunately , no massive waves to somersault me this time . It was a fairly long run
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Images : Brett Nattrass & courtesy Jenny Close |