Dear family, friends, sponsors, and blog readers,
As all of my regular blog readers already know, I have been experiencing tachycardia (rapid heart rate) during my races. I have never experienced this in training, but on race day I have had these episodes last for 5 minutes and for 40 minutes. During these episodes, my heart rate shoots up to 198 to 210 beats per minute.
Today, after running five miles at a comfortable pace, with an appropriate heart rate, my heart rate shot up for over minutes. When Michael found out this was happening, he altered the medical team on course, and they met me just past the mile nine marker. After stopping and standing still for a few minutes, the heart rate actually increased. The medical team pulled me off the course, and drove me to the medical tent at the finish line. Michael rode along with me, as I was scared.
Arriving at the med tent, I began to hyperventilate, as I was not getting enough blood flow, and I was a bit panicked. A team of medical staff carried me into the tent, where they were able to calm me, warm me, and comfort me. My heart rate finally fell to 100 bpm, after one long hour.
We consulted with Dr PZ Pearce, the medical director, who gave us two possible diagnoses, and asked us to contact him Monday to help determine our plan of action.
I am OK. I am not sad, but I am very disappointed that my race ended prematurely. However, this is something that I have to take care of, as I am not willing to compromise my health or risk my life to finish an Ironman.
Thank you for all of your support, and thanks for checking in.
I will be back!
Amanda, Thank goodness you had the sound mind and the wisdom to alert ML about your heart rate. How fortuneate that you had the med staf to watch over you, too. You must be incredibly disappointed. Better to be safe than sorry…you will be out there to 'roar' another day. Hang tough. Best wishes for getting to the bottom of this…warm regards, Rachel
Sorry to hear about this! I've been reading your blog for quite a while and have been rooting for you in this race! Glad to know you're okay (I think?).
Amanda, best of luck with your health, reading your blog is inspiring and I am sure that you can overcome this!!!! Best of luck for the rest of the year.
So sorry for you! Take care of yourself, health #1.
Amanda! I am so sorry about this. I was watching you all day via athlete tracker and you were absolutely killing it out there. I saw you come off the bike on the streaming video and you looked ready to roll.
After such a great Rev3 I thought you were posed to knock it out of the park and it looked like you were doing that today.
But I have also followed along your blog and read about you having these heart speeds. They seem very scary and if this is the situation that had to happen for you to seek serious help then in the long run it will be a good thing!!
We all have to take our health into our own hands and you are a role model to all of us for doing that.
I'm hoping you find some answers!
You should be proud of your decision. We must always do what is right for ourselves, not what is necessarily right for our "race". You will emerge a stronger athlete and a stronger person. Rest well. Motivate forward. Fight again.
I'm so sorry Amanda! I was tracking you and starting to wonder what was going on….cause you were hauling!!! I am so glad you are ok! You have such a great husband! I'm so glad he got the medical team to you quickly!! Feel better!
I was worried when I did not see any splits after your first 7 miles on the run. I am glad that the medical staff got to you quickly and I am sure that Michael was just as scared as you were.
Take care of your health first before anything else. Please keep us updated on your doctor's findings.
YIKES….Take care of yourself and I hope you are alright. I am happy you are getting things checked out and that your hubby sent them for you. I have a feeling your detemination would have kept you going longer and it may have been way to dangerouse. Hope you get things under control soon. You are so ready to kill it at an IM and you will very soon :-)
Tracy
It's better to hear that you are okay than risk everything. Get this thing figured out so you can get back to solid racing.
You have a great guardian angel in ML.
How scary, Amanda! I'm so thankful you are under excellent medical care. Sending you healing thoughts!
:)
Wow – at least you've got the best of the best with you. Take care and don't worry – you've got lots of runway left in that career of yours!
Get well soon you were having a great race
Take care of yourself. Glad you sacrificed the race for your health.
Amanda….The mark of a great athlete is to know when to when to call it off and come back another day. You were SOOOOO correct in making that decision. It's much harder to complete the Ironman if you're not alive to do it.
Let the doctors figure it out and once you've got it under control, I know you'll come back stronger then EVER!
I'm a big fan of yours and i'm so sorry to hear of this, YES your health is most important right now. Best wishes all around for you!
I hope that this gets figured out for you soon. It's nice to see you have a great support network with you.
Warm regards,
Jill
so scary! Hope things calm down soon.
Congratulations on making the right decision. We are rooting for you to make a 100% healthy comeback!
I've been following you too…so disappointing for you but you are so blessed to have such a loving husband. I will pray for your health and recovery. Smart move to stop the run and get well..
Amanda, how scary! I am so glad you are OK. I hope your doctors get to the bottom of this quickly. We're thinking of you!
Thanks for all of your kind words and comments!
Just to let you know, I am totally fine. DNF-ing was the right thing to do yesterday.
Basically, this is how it was explained to me by a doctor here:
I have a hyatel hernia. When my stomach is under a great deal of stress, the acid reflux comes up, the hyatel hernia squeezed the muscle that effectively pop through it. These muscles "poke" my heart causing rapid heart rate.
At this point, I will not race again until I get the hernia stitched.
I'm a bit qnnoyed with my doc who diagnosed me in Boulder last year as I asked him to stitch it after finding out that I had it. However, he seemed to think that it was too small to cause any problems. Obviously he did not understand the demands that I put on my body when I race…lol!
It only happens after ingesting something…whether it's food, gatorade, or a salt tab when I am racing at 80-90% of my max. This is why I have had it in halves and full ironmans.
I have never had it happen to me in training.
Because ML and I are not "doctor people" or "pill poppers", we sadly have had to figure it out the hard way. Racing IM CDA was the perfect storm to make ML and I take action.
The acid reflux/hernia thing has been going on since 2005 off and on. It wasn't unitl last year, that it finally dawned on me that it may not be my fault that I was having bad races and that I should probably see a doctor to see what the problem was…
In any case, we are on it now!
I'll be back…faster than ever. But I have to make sure I take care of this now…
Thank again for all of your support!
Wow, Amanda. It's a bummer that this ruined your race (which was going really well), but how lucky that you've got an explanation and a relatively clear path back to 100% output!
I was so sorry to hear you were pulled out. I saw it on Michael's Twitter and I just felt for you. Best wishes on a speedy recovery and figuring what's going on out! I have no doubt you'll be finishing an IM in the future.
I have been dealing with minor gastritis and acid issues this year and I can't imagine training as hard as you do with (sort of) similar issues! You're an inspiration.
Oh man, I was wondering what happened to you… take care of you, get well, there are so many more races your way. So sorry. Glad you are okay!!
I am so glad you are getting this figured out! Very scary. take care and get that hernia stitched up!!
Glad to hear you're figuring it out! Can't wait to see what awesome things you can do when you don't have this problem bothering you anymore.
It's unfortunate to discover the cause this way, but at least you know now and have a course of action to take.
We wish you the best in your recovery and look forward to some strong races in the future.
I have three different age group Ironman friends who have experienced very similar symptoms. I myself have been very dissatisfied with the varying explanations their doctors have given for the episodes and the varying treatments prescribed. I am beginning to think that this type of thing needs some study and a physician who "gets it."