As you’d expect, Ian was faster at getting setup than I, and I didn’t want to be making any noise while he was trying to sleep. I didn’t want to repay his kindness by keeping him awake. It was snowing some, but still almost no wind.
Aside from having some trouble seeing with the teeny little light I was trying to hold rather than using a headlamp, I got tucked in quickly enough and was warm enough. My heart started to race uncontrollably and after I zipped up the bivy, I felt like I was going to suffocate. I thought I had tested the bivy enough to know that I would not get claustrophobic. What was going on? I unzipped the bivy to let cold, fresh air in. That was scary since I was not convinced I’d stay warm with cold air flowing in. I was wondering if this was a panic attack. Was I freaking out?
The next thing I knew, Ian was telling me that it was time to wake up! That was the soundest 90 quality minutes of sleep. I didn’t get cold either. I had set my alarm in case I overslept, but that was just the right amount of time. I didn’t feel sleepy when I woke up, got to work to pack everything away and was able to get moving fairly quickly. Ian was long gone at this point.
That’s when the wheels fell off. I was feeling like I had no power. I wasn’t tired, but my legs weren’t under me either. I kept looking back to see where the person dragging skis behind me was. Finally, I realized what I I was hearing was my labored breath, my lungs had accumulated fluid overnight. After the sun came up, I stopped to make water out of snow. I made 3 L of water, the whole process took about an hour. During this time, I was coughing and I saw things when I coughed that I didn’t care to know had just been in my lungs. This continued.
Justin passed me, he looked strong and I wasn’t able to maintain conversation. I told him to go on, he looked like he was going to have a great day. I realized I was likely experiencing effects of altitude sickness, something I’ve had once before in a slightly different form, but I know I am susceptible to getting it. I was trying to drink more going in to the event knowing hydration helps ward off altitude sickness.
My pace went from slow to slower, often walking since that wasn’t much slower than riding and I knew I had to stop riding when there was a chance to do so. That meant moving gradually forward all day, struggling to get each mile to pass until I got to an area where Rob could come meet me with the car at mile 75. Thankfully, after hours of no cell service, I was able to contact him so he had time to get to where I’d be riding in.
Not long after I’d decided I’d need to stop, along came an angel, fellow racer named Erika. I’d met Erika before the race and had seen her near checkpoint 1. She was chatty and so nice to ride with. I felt badly because she was riding faster than me, feeling better than me, but trying to wait for me, too. Finally, it made sense for her to keep moving, but her company made quite a few miles go by faster.