I can tell you one thing.  There is nothing cute about a girl wearing several layers of rain jackets and pants lying in fetal position on a picnic table shaking uncontrollably and struggling to catch her breath for a good half an hour.  I had reached a point where I couldn’t tell if I was hot or cold anymore…but hugging my knees towards my chest felt just about right.

so I laid there.  sweaty and covered in goosebumps. a heap of contradictions.

After spending much of saturday asleep we decided giving Sundays race a shot would be ok.  I started at the very back of the women’s back in our modified “american” pursuit.  The first lap went alright I was skiing a pretty even pace with the other women.  I shot well, cleaned my first prone stage.  Happy to not ski penalty loops since the thought of skiing any extra today would suck out any extra ounce of energy I had.

I was catching other women who had struggled on the range!  Skiing was not getting any easier, prettier, nicer.  I could feel my body struggling to continue at race pace and keep myself upright at the same time.  I shot well through my second and third stages. 2 penalties in prone, and just one penalty in my first standing stage.

Somewhere in the middle of lap three I started getting pretty bad chills.  I had goosebumps on my legs and arms.  I kept thinking, “I shouldn’t be this cold…its so hot!”  By the time I came into the range for my last standing stage I was getting loopy.  I nearly fell over getting on the mat.  I was on point 17 but I struggled to even point my rifle in the right direction…points 16 and 18 where looming.  The shots I fired off were in vain…i even hit the range roof.  At that point I knew I was done.  My body was quitting.  Sleeping through most of Saturday’s meals was suddenly seeming like a horrible idea.  The tank was on empty.

So that’s where my race ended and my fetal position began.  It was a rough day.  I tried.  I just didn’t have enough left.  As a team-mate pointed out.  It’s only August.  I’ll just have to do myself justice in October.  I slept a good 10 hours last night.  A nap is probably in my future.  What I’m really hoping the amount of yellow gunk I’m now expelling from my body is a sign I’m on the mend and not getting worse…