It is my 3 Year Anniversary
I have never blogged specifically how my chemical exposure from a Nat Gas Rig has directly effected my training and racing . I hold no regrets, I don’t let it bring me down. It doesn’t matter what you’re given, you just have to deal with it, or make yourself miserable. I was miserable long enough when I was sick all the time, even in my home. Now I am just happy.
While I was still living in North Texas, I could no longer ride my bike or run from my house. That’s right, I could no longer train from my house.
I would have to travel to “clean patches of air” and hope that the wind was blowing in a favorable direction.
That was not always the case.
I had to quit several races because of it, either through pulmonary problems, dizziness, confusion.
It effects me every day, even to this day.
I never know where I go, I may have symptoms.
Last Saturday I raced Tierra Torture. On the way to pre ride I got really sick, so sick, I should have probably handed over the keys. I knew it would pass, at least I was hopeful. I was OK at the trail, but I knew I would have to get there early enough on race day to clear my head, or detox enough that I could have a decent race.
I can’t race in Farmington, New Mexico, although I would really like to do that Xterra up there.
I can’t race in Carlsbad, although, I would have really liked to go down there and do that road race.
I probably can’t race in Durango, I will find out more this summer when I go up there.
And Hut to Hut is going to be an adventure of a lifetime, I’m sure.
I can’t race in Pagosa Springs, that’s only a sulfur spring, but it doesn’t really matter, it’s the chemical I am sensitive to, and it’s in everything.
I will probably never be able to go to Hawaii, or Maui again, because of the volcanoes, but I will try.
Last summer at Leadville during the Silver Rush Run, I had four episodes. During the 1st one I almost quit my race. Then, I realized, it may pass, it may just be the mines. It did pass, and the 2nd one passed too, and then, the other 2 times on the return trip it passed as well. During the episode, I just wanted to lie down and go to sleep. Back in the Patch we call it “poppy field syndrome”.
I have been getting a lot of skin lesions the last couple of weeks.
I generally get a couple when I eat onion and garlic, they are high in sulfur. But this is very bad, my arms my legs, my face, I don’t like those at all. I spontaneous bleed.
I thought it was from the fire here in the Sandias, and that the stuff they were putting on the fire was bad, real bad.
They still haven’t gotten better.
I started a detox regime.
It might be the water I am bathing in, I think, they changed the water supply.
I don’t know.
But today, when I went to the dog park, I realized that it is probably because the dog park is 2 blocks away from the power plant, and I always get sick when I drive by the power plant, from the nasty emissions.
Well, I have been going to dog park a lot lately.
It should be my God Given Right to be able to go the Dog Park.
But then again, it should have been my God Given Right to be able to live in my Dream House, until Ken took his promotion.
All things work out for the best in the end.
It’s just sometimes, the road is a little bumpy.
I can never trust I will have a Great Race ever again.
For Example: next weekend when I go to race Dawn to Dusk, I will be driving by a Refinery, I was so sick last year, by the time I got to the race venue, I called Ken in tears sobbing, all the training, all of the planning that goes into a 12 hour race. I managed to detox by morning, I felt good. This year, if the wind is not right, my race may not be right. I am not a girl to let that bother me, I’m just going to do, what I can do.
This is all related to the chemical exposure I had 3 years ago, brought to me by the Natural Gas Industry.
C’est la vie!