Picture this… XTERRA Motatapu race entry booked July 2011, a half ironman equivalent off-road triathlon near Queenstown in NZ. The race includes a 2km swim in the chilly waters of Lake Wanaka, a 47km MTB over the Crown Range and a 15km Mountain Run with Over 600m of vertical ascent. The race is the longest XTERRA in the world and arguably one of the toughest. After the XTERRA Worlds (Oct) everything, from a training and racing perspective, was done with this in mind. I gave up one of my favourite sports in kayaking so that I could swim 2-3 times a week and improve my swimming…. successfully knocked 5mins off my 2km time. I raced much less than normal with a focus on long rides with hills (Smiths Gully to Kinglake return) followed by a trial run. Competed in the Kona Odyssey shorty and a race pace lead up to the event which confirmed the solid fitness base I had put in place. The Sunday before the race I did the last of my Smith’s to Kinglake rides and after comfortably completing them at a solid pace previously I struggled in the last 5km. Monday morning my wife comes down with the flu and the alarm bells start ringing! What if a race 9 months in the planning and with 6 months solid training is in jeopardy? I took to sleeping in the spare bedroom to minimise the chance of catching it and I thought it had worked… until I woke up on Thursday morning for our flight to Christchurch.

You know that feeling when the beginnings of the flu have got you and my worst nightmare had come true. By the time we landed in Christchurch my whole body was a mass of aching muscles and the ones that I had been nursing through training the worst. My wife indicated the muscle aches only lasted a day so had a Nanna nap and early night to try and knock it on the head. On Friday morning we were up early to fly to Queenstown but there was little change from the night before, maybe the aches had subsided a little but hardly worth mentioning… and now the chills and sweats had started. Arrived in Queenstown and got all the race gear sorted carefully laying out the plethora of equivalent and gear into swim bike and run piles. With planning out the way had another nanna nap but this time woke up feeling worse. With only 18 hours to race start there was a very real question as to whether I should race at all. That decision I resolved would be made tomorrow morning but in the meantime maybe the pharmacist could offer some good drugs to get me through the race so headed down to the local. Unfortunately the pharmacist indicated that my symptoms pointed to influenza and there was nothing he could offer that would make any difference… except some Olive Leaf Extract, has much more anti-oxidents that Vitamin C apparently. Willing to give anything a go I bought some and swallowed a measure of the vile liquid. Then headed off to Wanaka where we had booked a hotel room for the night. Again in bed early at 9pm and by 12pm I woke up saturated in sweat and had interesting fever filled dreams for the rest of the night. 7am wake up and actually thought I might be a little better, with the exception of sitting on the dunny causing me to break out into the sweats. Decided to get ready and head down to the race start and in the few minutes before we left did a little internet research as to ideas for how to get through a triathlon with a flu and came across this interesting article http://m.active.com/triathlon/Articles/Scaretacticstopreventyoufromexercisingwhileill.htm. It’s a long in-depth article but well worth a read in you do a lot of training and racing. The short of it was that the aches in your muscles are the result of your body breaking down your muscles to free up Amino Acids to be used in your liver to fight the infection. All the muscles in your body can contribute to this including your heart. The resulting Myocarditis can cause sudden death while exercising in otherwise young healthy people. Right… the ‘to race or not to race’ question just got a little bit harder.

Arrived at the race and got everything ready. Last minute bike check and then all the gear laid out. I was determined to leave the decision to race until the last second. Within no time other competitors were getting wetsuits on ready for the swim. Some brave souls were even warming up in the frigid waters. Race briefing out the way and we were off. I started at the back so I could try and get some rhythm going without fighting through first buoy carnage and settled down nicely. Goal was to sit at a comfortable pace, low heart rate, and just get through. Fortunately all my swimming training was paying off and I was slowing but surely reeling in and passing quite a few people. It was going perfectly until I hit the 1.1km mark and my body finally reacted to the cold water with another bout of the sweats and chills. I had to back right off and look longingly at all those people re-pass me. After a minute or so I came right again and continued, at a slightly slower pace through to the end and overall the swim time was OK given the circumstances.

Into transition and onto the bike I set a solid pace that again focussed on keeping the heart rate low. At that speed it was reasonably easy with the exception of the occasional pinch climb. About half way through the ride the first of the Multisport (Kayak rather than swim) competitors comes through and is none other than adventure racing legend Steve Gurney. We rode together for a time and discussed the details of our respective races. It occurred to me then that surely he had past experiences racing with the flu and may have some tips to get through. His answer: “I try to avoid racing with the flu… it’s bad for your heart”! He offered some more advice about taking it easy and keeping heart race low and looking after my body, most of which I was doing already. We then discussed the merits of pulling out early but he suggested I just walk it, he was going to (battling ankle injury). Pulled away from him as he had broken a derailer… “see you on the run”… “no, I’ll see you on the walk”. The remainder of the ride was pretty straight forward and was all downhill from the 34km mark, easy to go fast while keeping the heart rate low. The hardest part of the whole ride from a heart rate perspective was the river crossings before the finish. The course crosses the Arrow River about 6 or 7 times in the lead up and it’s quite an effort to get through and stay upright. Finished the MTB in 2:45 which is only 25 minutes off my fastest MTB only time from the year before so was happy with that given the circumstances.

Now to change into run gear and get some course recon information from my wife who had completed the same run course I was about to embark on earlier in the day. She indicated that the run was OK and just to walk the hills… most of the people on the earlier run had done just that. Take it easy and you’ll be glad you made it to the finish! With those words and those of Steve Gurney’s ringing in my head I set off at a sedate jog towards the first of many hills. Tobins Track in the first one rising 264m over 2km. Despite walking the hill I was surprised how difficult it was to walk up the hill without getting short of breath and getting the heart rate going. I had to resort to a slow walk in which other walkers over took me (anyone who knows me will realise that my long legs were not made for walking slowly)! Cresting the first hill there was a steady 1.2 km run to the next hill which a jogged at a comfortable pace. Now the climbing started for real. Walking along the ‘Miners Trail’ you basically follow a goat track around the side of a mountain for 2.5km and another 172m of climbing. This section was the toughest to get through. It is just about impossible to keep your heart rate down on a track like that and I was starting to get lightheaded, a feeling that was helped by the steep cliffs to my immediate left. By this point my mind as well as my body was exhausted from the rigours of fever and exercise and I was stuggling to hold a coherent thought thread. I was at the 6km mark and knew I had another 3km to go to get to the summit. The last km had taken me 15 minutes and the thought of going on at that pace was daunting. Going back the other way was a much easier option and I even turned around to do so until the next competitor came past. “You OK?”… “Struggling, got the flu”… “same here”. It was those words as he ran past me that galvanised my mind and body to kick on. It was tough but 1.5km and 24 minutes later I came to the midway point aid station. A seat, short rest and some Powerade perked me up a lot. The next km up some equally steep paths was ticked off in 13 minutes and before I knew if I had crested the top. Now the downhill started and I picked up the pace. Difficult to get any real pace going in a field with grass tussocks everywhere and no defined path (the ankle killing minefield) but did what I could. At points to descent was so steep that I couldn’t get any grip on my shoes on the grass and spent just as much time sliding down as walking. Once on to the 4wd track through it was a solid 5km run to the finish and with the exception of some small hills and the obligatory 6-7 river crossings managed to run the whole way.

Ended up finishing in 6hrs 30mins rather than the expected 5 hours and under the circumstances I’m pretty happy with that… bring on XTERRA Rotorua and next year with an early flu shot!