Terrors of 94.7

So the 94.7 road race of 2018 will be permanently etched in my mind forever and for all the wrong reasons.  This year I was riding for one of my work's satellite capacity service providers, Intelsat in support of Kids Haven (a worthwhile cause to give street kids a home and start in life). As always, I was under prepared after not enough training (with flu 3 weeks before this set me back a bit) but was planning on winging it for my 9th race. They changed the route this year, so all the hills were in the beginning. Wayne my trusty riding partner rode with me once again and moved back from his allocated starting slot to join me at the start. The route was a bit taxing in the beginning but I managed ok until Kyalami race track and then the wheels fell off. My Camelbak was frozen and I was not getting enough fluids in the 35 degree heat. After going around the track and filling up my Camelback, I had to walk some of the hills as I was not feeling too good. Ever patient Wayne was waiting for me at the top of every hill and pushed me a the last hill (he was an awesome friend waiting for me and nursing me home). Fortunately the last 10kms was downhill and I managed to get over the finish line. 

Wayne and I before the race

After the finish I was feeling terrible and almost vomited in Wayne's car on the way home. Once home I vomited repeatedly and collapsed on the cold bathroom floor. That is when my wife intervened and took me to the Hospital for a drip. Once in the ER, I was put on a drip and blood tests taken. Early prognosis was that I had renal failure and had to go to ICU so that my kidneys could recover and they could test my levels during the night. ICU was not a pleasant experience, I am not sure what my highlight was, having a catheter put in or the 03:30 wake up for a bed bath. To cut a long story short, my body recovered really quickly and I managed to negotiate an early release for good behaviour after 2 days. Body is all good and I am back on the bike. Thanks for all the support from my family and friends during this experience. 

ICU hooked up to all the machines