The story of my spine

My spine has had a long and storied history.  When I was a kid, maybe around 10 or so, I fell off a horse and knocked the curve out of my spine.  I had to go to a chiropractor for quite a while to get it back.  Then in 2007 I had the car accident where I broke 6 bones in my neck and it did who knows what else to the rest of my spine.  When you break bones in your neck that tends to be the main focus.  And while I don't know for sure, we're pretty certain that the rest of my spine got thrown for a loop.  

I've always had to go to the chiropractor. (For international friends, in the US chiropractic is much more mainstream than in some countries where it's considered very fringe.)  I've had times where I've had to go multiple times per week to where I've only gone once per month.  If I were to go too long without going my SI Joint/sacrum would go out of alignment and I'd lose all my power.  I was told, by multiple coaches/trainers that I needed to strengthen my right glute.  We'd joke that I was half a lazy ass because my right glute didn't want to engage.  So I was tasked with glute exercises.  I did them all.  I did them a lot.  And it never helped.  I was told to work on my technique, just work on it and just fix it.  So I tried.  And tried and tried.  And it did improve.  I did get things better.  But it was never as good as it "should" have been.  Not for lack of me trying and for a lot of frustration on my part.  

Things never got as bad as they did for the race in Oman and then especially the race in Australia.  I've never been in that much pain before.  I've never gotten the sciatica type pain before, and that was a little scary.  

Since I've moved to Colorado Springs I've been working at finding practitioners.  It's not easy.  I'm used to my old chiropractor and I miss her like crazy.  She kept me moving and working.  I'd been seeing two different chiropractors here deciding if I liked one more than another.  I was talking with one of them asking if they did a certain type of adjustment and she didn't, but she gave me the number of a sports chiropractor (there's  such a thing?!?!).  So I called.  I went in last week.  He was very, very thorough.  Took a full history, took X-rays, did some other interesting scan.  Sat and talked with me.  Then spent the night looking at it.  Then met with me the next day to go over stuff.  He's a great teacher and went over things really thoroughly.  He's also done Ironman triathlons so understands endurance athletes and their mindset.   

Here's the findings.  I have scoliosis.  Not front to back, but I wiggle sideways.  My spine curves in such a way that it's not possible for me to engage my right glute like I wanted to.  When he told me that I literally broke into tears in his office.  YEARS I have spent thinking I wasn't working hard enough or trying hard enough and I find out today that no matter how hard I worked it would've never worked like I wanted it to.  Can you imagine what that feels like?  

Along with the scoliosis some of the bones in the spine are starting to get bone spurs and pushing and it's not too far away from bulging discs.  So the pain I was feeling in Australia wasn't sciatica type pain, it WAS sciatica pain.  And that totally sucks.  I still have goals, but I also want to be able to live a long healthy life doing physical activities and the thought that RWing could mess with that really threw my brain for a loop over the weekend.   

But today I met with the doctor and we have a plan.  He doesn't think things are so far gone that there's no coming back.  So we made a plan.  I have things to work on and guidelines to follow.  In a few months we'll see how I'm responding to treatments and decisions can be made.  It's both terrifying and hopeful.  It'll be what it'll be, but man I want to keep going.

I'm glad how I've been feeling these last few months wasn't a figment of my imagination.  I kept feeling like things were off.  I would train and I knew I was in better shape than my workout times were showing.  I thought it was maybe the elevation, the move, the lack of flat places to train, but I knew it wasn't right.  Knowing there's a reason and not just me not working hard enough is such a relief.   

Fingers crossed everybody...   Enjoy your training.  Love what you do.  You never know...  

The story of the Australian Centurion attempt

 

We are home safe and sound after a very disappointing but fun trip to Australia. I've been before, but it was Dave's first time, so it was great seeing him experience things. We didn't do a ton of touristy stuff since before the race we were getting ready for the race and after the race we were both hurting, but we experienced Melbourne and got to go to a wildlife sanctuary and see all the native critters.

At least some of the sting of not making 100 miles has faded, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed. I really wanted that badge. Mentally I was all in ready to go. My biggest concern going in was my SI joint/sacrum. I did get an appointment with a physio before the race (There aren't really chiropractors in Australia. They're considered fringe medicine and not really trusted. A Physio in Australia is sort of a combination of Physical Therapist and massage therapist and someone who knows a ton...). He worked on my quite a bit, but didn't do any actual shifting of my SI. I asked him how it was when we were done and he said "pretty good" which didn't give me a lot of confidence. I need really good before a long race like that, but it's not like I had any other options and he wasn't willing to do anything else on me. He said I'd be sore and I'm thinking to myself "yeah, but I'll be more sore if things go out." But my workout the next day went great and I thought it just might be good enough!

Race weekend was really nice for the Australians, highs around mid 70s, but for us coming from Colorado where we're usually around freezing it felt a bit warm. Not hot enough that we thought it'd derail us, but definitely something to pay attention to. And the race started at noon, so we'd feel the heat for the first portion of the race. I started the race fully hydrated and started drinking early. I also started eating early. If there's one thing (besides my SI) for me to improve it's my fueling. My stomach tends to reject food after a while, so I went in with a definite plan of how much to eat when. I was sticking to it and all the food was going down great and I felt full of energy. I even had to stop for a bathroom break around the 4 hour mark so I knew I was still hydrated. I started off right on plan. I was going like clockwork. Feeling good and enjoying the laps as much as you can enjoy going in 445 meter circles. I went through 25% of the race going at 20 hour pace. I wasn't expecting to finish in 20 hours, but I knew I'd need some cushion for the next day if it got hot (it did) and for bathroom breaks, if I needed to change clothes, or whatever else came up. And since 20 hour pace is around 7:30 per K pace, it's not like I was going fast. After 4 hours we all changed direction on the track. I was still feeling great. About 5 or 5.5 hours in I started to feel just a little niggle in my SI. Nothing that was bugging me, but it just caught my attention. The best thing of the whole race happened just before I hit 50K. We were staying with the race director, 50K Olympian Tim Erickson. Tim's son, Chris Erickson, is also a 3x 50K Olympian. I've known Chris for a number of years and he said he'd stop by and see how things were going. He very graciously asked me if there was anything he could bring. So I asked him to bring me a milkshake. After 5.5 hours walking in the (for us) heat it went down a treat!!! So not only did I get a milkshake, but I got to cross the 50K mark walking with a 50K Olympian! So cool!

Not too long after that, about 6:40, I was going by my aid table and I reached for something and sort of missed it and made a grab for it. Big, big mistake! My SI joint and all the surrounding muscles absolutely went crazy. It was instant pain, almost sciatic pain up and down. I slowed down, just started to regular walk. There was a physio that was going to come to the race, so I asked when he'd be there and was told 7:00. Cool, I could hang on for 20 minutes. At this point the wind that had been blowing and keeping me a little cooler died down and I started to feel like I was massively over heating. So I was dumping water on me to stay damp. It was working and I was feeling okay. 7:00 came and the physio wasn't there, they told me he got stuck in traffic. So I kept walking. Slowly, but at least I was still making forward progress. About 7:30 he arrived. They let me know and I went into the physio tent. At this point it's dark and the temperature is dropping. And I stop. And I'm damp. Really, really bad combination. So as he's working on my muscles to try and get stuff to relax I start to shiver. Not just a little but those big uncontrollable shivers that make all the muscles go nuts. He found a blanket for me. He worked stuff as best he could and I went back on the track. When I went by my aid table they could see me shivering and I asked for my fuzzy sweater. I got it put on and warmed up fairly quickly. My SI/Sacrum area felt better. It took me a while to get other muscles that had freaked out going again. I asked the people at the aid station if they would do the math to see what pace I'd now need to hold to make it to 100 miles in the 24 hour cutoff. Next time around I was told I'd need to do 4:12 laps (remember this is for 445 meters, not 400). So, I would need to do 4:12 per lap for 16 hours straight with no slowing down and no breaks. Okay.... So I did some laps to see if I could get my time down to that. It took me about another 3 laps of re-warming up but I was able to get to that pace. But at that point my muscles around the SI were starting to spasm again and I knew I wouldn't be able to hold it for 16 more hours. That's just a long time to be in pain. And I worried that walking that long with it spasming or being out of alignment could actually do some serious damage. While I really wanted that badge I wanted to have a longer career more. So I made the really, really hard decision to stop at the almost 59K mark.

Once I stopped I did change but I kept getting cold. Everything would spasm. Everything ached because I had walked different for about 7.5K while I was waiting for the physio and I used muscles how I don't normally. I was really miserable and in pain. But Dave was still going so I was trying to support him. Unfortunately he called it quits around 10:00 I think (time got a bit blurry at that point). The next day I was giving Dave a hug and my SI joint gave a huge CRACK! Dave sort of freaked out thinking it must've hurt me, but it actually felt so much better because I think it went back in place. After that muscles were sore but I wasn't getting the sciatic-type pains. That changed after all the traveling back and stuff. Now it still feels off and I'm having a hard time getting it back in place. It's very, very frustrating. I don't know why I'm "suddenly" having such a problem with it. I'm sure I'll get it figured out, but man it's driving me nuts. The race itself was spectacular! Tim is an amazing race director. The atmosphere was great, there were tons of people on the track. Our aid helpers, John Kilmartin and Michelle Thompson were fantastic. There were other Australian Centurions there helping that I'm embarrassed I've forgotten their names, but they were great.

On the one hand I'm glad I'll "have" to go back to Australia, but I would rather I didn't have to go for my Centurion badge again. Oh well. In a race that long anything can happen and it's never a "for sure" that you'll make it.

Thanks so much to everyone who was supportive and wished us good luck and followed along. It really meant a lot. And now, on to the next goal...