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To start, I wanted to say another thank you to everyone for your comments and concern.  It really meant a lot to me and that was one of the major factors motivating me to write this and share more of my story. 

As many of you know, I have asthma.  But, thanks to encouragement from my coach to look into more treatment options and a great pulmonary specialist, I’ve been receiving monthly injections for my asthma along with allergy shots.  This combination has resulted in my asthma being under amazing control, the best it has been in my memory.  Just as my asthma came under the most wonderful control (finally!!), another problem that I have been ignoring for over a decade came to the forefront.  What many of you don’t know is that I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease when I was 16 years old.  It’s called Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and an estimated 0.3% of the population has this disease, but it occurs in people 30 to 60 years old, not 16 year olds.  Because I was so young, it had a greater (and longer) impact on my life.  For the last 12 years, part of my thyroid was able to chug along and help me with one thing that is very important in triathlon: temperature regulation.  The thyroid is responsible to regulating your body temperature through a number of different mechanisms, but basically it tells your body when to get rid of heat, when to conserve heat, how much to sweat and how hard your heart should be working to conserve or get rid of heat.  Last year, my thyroid function suddenly began to decline after years of being stable, which meant my thyroid was finally completely destroyed by my own immune system.  We were able to stabilize my levels without too much change in my lifestyle, but what my husband and I couldn’t predict was how hot this summer would be and how hard that would be for my body to handle. 

This summer, obviously, has been hot.  And I’ve struggled in every single race with significant cramps, nausea and headaches.  I didn’t really put it together because I have thyroid hormone replacement, but that is a steady state of hormone and can't respond to changing temperatures like a healthy athlete’s body can respond.  And my body became dangerously hot when I raced this weekend in Omaha.  The water was 86 degrees, which already put my body in a difficult spot because I can’t cool through evaporation in the water.  When I got out of the water and put my ice bags in my jersey, I was a little better.  With the ice dripping, I cooled enough after 4 miles that I felt I was able to push.  And I finally started to catch other women!  I was feeling good through the turn around and then started to slowly feel hot and tired.  I checked my chest and all my ice was gone.  Then I got passed by 3 women with maybe 4 miles left.  I was able to keep with them, but I felt like I was going all out, even though my watts were in my normal 40k range.  As I neared transition, my arms started to cramp.  It was like the worst version of déjà vu, because this was how it had happened in Grand Rapids. 

Going out on the run, my quads immediately began to cramp.  It’s incredibly frustrating feeling my body begin to shut down as the woman I had followed out of transition slowly got further and further ahead of me.  By the turnaround, thoughts of a podium spot were gone.  I remember leaving the stadium and wearily thinking “I’m so cold, it’s so cold.”  It took me a few minutes to remember that it’s in the upper 80’s in Omaha.  Not cold.  I looked down at my arms and I was covered in goose bumps, but I wasn’t covered in sweat.  Alarms started to go off somewhere in the physician-trained part of my brain that being cold, goose bumps and not sweating is really bad.  But my head hurt and I couldn’t think and I just had to keep moving.  I realized then that I was walking.  I saw an aid station ahead and thought “I have to get there, I need help.”  I tried to start running again and my lungs wouldn’t work. 

Suddenly, there was a volunteer in front of me.  I realized I couldn’t really see and my head felt like it was going to split open.  I reached for the volunteer and the next thing I knew I was on the pavement.  I don’t remember if I was face down, face up, I’m not really sure.  Later, when my husband was trying to find me, he heard people saying an unconscious woman had been put in an ambulance.  I think I was conscious for part of it, but I’m not sure.  I went in and out, I’m not really sure for how long.  I remember at one point they were forcing me to breathe by bagging me, which was scary and I panicked briefly before fading out again.  I remember hearing someone say “We’re losing her.”  I’m also relatively certain a woman stopped in the middle of her race to put a hand on my shoulder and pray over me.  I wish I could find that woman and say thank you, but I don’t remember being able to see at that point or what she may have looked like, just being able to hear. 

Looking back, I don’t think I was nearly as scared as I should have been.  And that is another goal of mine for sharing my story: heat stroke can be fatal.  It is very dangerous and can cause permanent brain and kidney damage.  Running legend Alberto Salizar almost died of heat stroke.  If you ever feel cold in hot temperatures, have goose bumps and stop sweating, make sure to get help and get cool right away!  But the scary part moving forward for me is that my body can’t cool itself, can’t regulate my core temperature, so how do I stop this from happening again?  Now that my autoimmune disease has taken away temperature regulation, which is pretty darn important for racing, how do I race? 

There is almost no research to go on in my particular case, except for a case study of a young woman who died of heat stroke in a sauna due to the same autoimmune disease I have, so I'll be staying away from saunas.  But, there are other diseases where the body struggles with heat or cannot regulate temperature, one of which is multiple sclerosis which has a lot of research!  Todd and I started researching cooling vests, which are expensive.  But after discussion with my family and some physician friends, we all agree that cooling vests to keep my body temperature down are my best chance of being able to continue competing.  

This whole thing has been tough.  It sucks that my body doesn't work right.  I sought advice and support from an amazing person, Rob Swartz, the race director of the Boyne City Triathlon.  When it comes to rare situations, he has me beat by a marathon!  He was the 7^th person in the world diagnosed with chronic microglial encephalomyelitis, which is an autoimmune disease that affects the brain.  I knew contacting Rob would immediately put an end to my pity party because, despite the severity of his illness, Rob has continued to race and has been an amazing race director of the most beautiful triathlon in Michigan!  We messaged back and forth for a while and his words stuck with me:

“You have a choice… pity or find a way to fight this.  Get the cooling vest, long white cooling sleeves, etc.  Heck if that doesn’t work, get a fat tire bike and kick ass in snow bike races that are every weekend up here all winter.  The choice is yours.  I already know your answer and am here when you need me.” 

I won’t lie, I was crying in the hospital on the phone with my dad and saying I was ready to give this all up, but I don’t think anyone believed me, not even me.  Yeah, I’m tired of cramping and I’m tired of getting sick and I’m tired of being in the hospital and I’m really, really tired of ambulance ride bills!  That shit is expensive!  But I’ve always been a fighter.  The important part now is to be a SMART fighter.  So, next time you see me race, you will know why I’m wearing a strange looking vest and covered in white, which really doesn’t look that great on me, but oh well!  I’m looking forward to my next race, which is an XTERRA in Ionia (shade anyone??) followed by the Boyne City Triathlon!  Seriously, I encourage all of you to look into this race.  Not only is Rob an amazing and inspiring person, but the race raises money for research AND HUNTER KEMPER is going to be there!  That is NOT a typo, Hunter Kemper will be there!  So consider signing up for the race, taking a little trip to northern Michigan, telling me I look super fly in my vest and sleeves (I’m gonna rock this look no matter what!!) and meet Hunter Kemper!  I can’t think of a better weekend!  Here’s the link, just because I know you want to see how cool I can make this get up look…

http://tritofinish.com/events/team-lucky-7-boyne-city-triathlon-2016

But in all seriousness, a big thank you to everyone.  All of you following my Facebook, reading my blogs, commenting on my posts, it makes me feel much more comfortable about rocking the cooling gear and continuing to race the best I can.

Podium picture after last year's Boyne City Triathlon with Race Director Rob Swartz