Kona 10/13: Staying a bit longer than expected!

We said goodbye to Anders on Monday evening after getting to hang out for almost two weeks--what a treat!  While it's always sad to say good bye, I'm sure he was happy to leave the heat and humidity here.  It's difficult for us Christoffersons to race in the conditions here.  That's been evident to both of us for quite a while.  I for one am glad I won't do another Ironman here (or anywhere for the matter).  I suspect Anders wouldn't be heart-broken if he didn't race here again, but he has a long road in front of him so who knows?

After Anders left, we began to turn our attention to returning back East.  I was taking it mostly easy but I did notice that my throat was a bit sore (Saturday night/Sunday morning), which I attributed to post-race physical stress and the long, hot day out watching Anders on Saturday.

I still felt pretty good and in fact met up with Midge Kerr and we swam out to the King's buoy and back and then I hiked for 90+ minutes on Tuesday afternoon.

We had dinner at the Kerr's beautiful home up on the side of the volcano overlooking Kailua on Tuesday night and I noticed I felt pretty sore in my shoulders, which was surprising given that we only swam about 2,300 yards.  That night I had a lot of trouble sleeping and finally took some Advil as my body was achey.

Early Wednesday (about 4 or 5am) Judy and I decided we should test for Covid given my symptoms and  we were scheduled to fly out Thursday night.  She tested negative but sure enough, I tested positive.  I wasn't really that surprised given how I felt.  I texted Midge and she tested and found out she was positive as well (later we would find out that lots of folks who raced or volunteered have now tested positive).  It appears that Kona 2022 was something of a "super-spreader" event.

I donned my mask and drove over to Urgent Care.  I tested positive with one of those tests where they scrape your brain (or so it seems!).  They checked me out and everything seemed fine (99% blood sat, no fever, clear lungs, etc.)  They prescribed Paxlovid and Judy picked it up at Target as well as a bunch of vitamins (Judy should be granted sainthood as she had to do all of this on her birthday and basically has been taking care of Anders and I for 2+ weeks!).

The doc told us that the current versions of CoVid on the Island were relatively mild and given my mild symptoms and my vaccinations, she thought I would be fine.  She cleared us to fly on Friday (Day 5 or 6 for me), but we decided to fly out this coming Saturday to be on the safe side.  I feel pretty much back to normal today--no fever nor body aches, and very limited nasal itchiness.  I don't know if its the 9 Paxlovid pills I've swallowed, my 5 vaccinations, a mild CoVid strain, or just good fortune, but it seems like my first brush with CoVid will be relatively easy.

I wonder where and when I "got it".  It's impossible to know of course.  I may even had the early stages of it prior or during my race.  I do remember being surprised at how profusely I was sweating at the beginning of the run leg.  I'm not citing this as an excuse and probably the more logical reason for my DNF was my relative inability to deal well with heat/humidity but there is a chance I was impacted by the virus last Thursday....

Anyways, I'm taking it really easy and I might even go out for a short and easy stroll this afternoon.  I already packed up my bike so as to not be tempted to hop on that!

Onwards and Upwards!