Swim Helmet

I have been inspired by my sister to invent a swim helmet. It will be a big seller at Ironman races. I will make a billion, buy myself an island and live happily ever after. I will host Camp HTFU twice a year and we will swim in the ocean.


But don't forget right now that I have a head injury so I might not remember this in 5 minutes. Just remind me of this fantastic idea. And please forgive me in case I repeat myself a few times.


Why would I want to invent a swim helmet? Well because contrary to reports..... my injury occurred in the least likely of all places. The one place where I feel 800% at home, where I spent my life.


In the swim.


Who gets injured in the swim?


It would have been evident if you know my regular swim times. I've done IMLP 3 times and have never swam over an hour. So when I line up in front it is because I belong there. I lined up yesterday after a morning that went fine...... in the front. This year I chose a spot very wide. I wanted to avoid the dogfight that this swim is.


Here is what the Lake Placid swim start looks like.


It's about 50 yards wide and all 2,500 people start in the water together. Over the years this swim has become more and more aggressive. There is a line you follow under water if you can get to it, and it's twice around a rectangle.


I knew things would be ugly when at 6:50 the men were already pushing and shoving and dunking others as we were treading water. A group of about 10 of us girls huddled together and vowed we'd stay together. Pink caps unite. All of us had swim times under 1:00 so we were in the right place. By the looks of a few of these fellows..... they wouldn't be under an hour.


At 7am the cannon sounded and we were off. Even at my wide right spot it was awful. The girls stayed together and suddenly I was surrounded by blue caps.


About 2 minutes in..... the event occurred.


When you swim in a triathlon you are prepared to take hits. especially as a females swimming in the midst of guys. They hit and punch you. They dunk you. They are not kind.


I took three hits one after the other. It wasn't the force of the hits as much as the timing. I got hit in the right temple, left temple then as I picked up my head to sight I got nailed in the back of the head.


It took less than once second for me to get all 3 hits. Had I had one small second in between each, if I had just enough space for my head to move with the blows I would have been fine.


My sight immediately went blurry and I saw stars. If I had passed out I would have been dead. The rest of the field would have swum right over me without a single care in the world. That's how vicious this is.


I got myself to the outside of the pack and slowed down as I felt such pain and incredible nausea. I was dizzy but I gave myself time to pull it together as I swam. I cruised the first loop and the second loop went much better. I swam 5 minutes slower than I typically did. But that was about to be the least of my problems.


As I exited the swim I continued to feel spacey, but that's normal in an Ironman swim. They stripped my wetsuit off and I barely remember the 1/4 mile run to the transition. I do remember having a hard time deciding on whether to wear sunglasses. It was pouring rain.


I hopped on my bike and I felt okay. I began to throw up at the first climb, but it didn't worry me. I was still able to take in my nutrition and salt and I felt like I was hitting my calorie goals.


The pain continued to worsen and vision changes began to occur. As I approached the 10K descent I was literally seeing 2 roads in front of me. Somehow I convinced myself my contacts were screwed up (denial)..... and I aimed for straight down the middle .


Throughout the first loop of the bike I was nauseous, had vision changes and occasionally vomited. I stayed under my power goals just to try to pull things together. Even with vomiting I kept my nutrition goals.


I rode through town and through the amazing crowd and I don't remember too much of it. I ascended Cascade hill and vomited again and started to see double..... again. As I was still trying to convince myself that it was my contacts I stopped at the aid station to try to shake my head and bring myself together.


The medical guy at the aid station came over and asked if I was okay. I told him I was. He asked me about my nutrition and I told him it was fine. I told him I had gotten hit in the head in the swim and was having a little trouble with vision. Then he asked me my race number.


In the Ironman your race number is to you, what your social security number is to you in college. You are defined by it. It is also written on each arm and each leg. And on your bib. I couldn't remember my bib number. But in all fairness before this race began I was having trouble remembering it.


He asked me my name and it took me too long to remember. The next thing I knew I was being strapped into a gurney and I watched my bike get loaded into the back of a truck. Someone screamed "Eggers" from the course.


Apparently there was a girl on a Cervelo like mine who crashed in the descent. Which was why people thought I had crashed.


The ambulance brought me to the med tent and I was questioned again about nutrition.


"I had 300 caloires an hour for three hours." I told them. "I had a 341 salt tablet every 15 minutes for three hours." They were impressed by this.


"Spell the word WORLD backwards." The doctor told me. One of my athletes, Kitima was also working as an MD. I looked at her.


Oh boy.


It took me quite a while to spell WORLD backwards.


She had me tough my finger to my nose then to her finger. I did it. She wanted me to do it faster. I couldn't.


My body temperature had dropped to 95 degrees. They packed me with saline. The pain in my head was so severe I wished they would have just cut my head off.


Now poor Curt wasn't quite sure of what was going on. The house we were staying at was on the run course which was completely closed to traffic. Even in an emergency. I refused to go to the hospital because I knew I'd have no way home. So he was pacing back and forth waiting, hearing some conflicting reports, knowing something was wrong based on my times..... finally Kitima got a hold of him.


Essentially that's where it ended. Here is my absolutely gorgeous finisher's photo:




Part of being an athlete is taking this kind of risk. I am still a four time Ironman finisher. I still own a sub eleven finishing time, which was truly my life long goal. I still have my medals. This would have been much worse if it was Ironman #1. In life we have disappointment and we have amazing achievements. I realize that making it to the starting line of 3 Ironmans in a year is amazing in itself.


Right now I will allow the disappointment to wash through me. I won't lie and say that the pain isn't great, it really really is. It hurts so very much. In a few days that will begin to subside. I have to allow myself to just experience the pain instead of avoiding it. Walk through the fire, you'll get to the other side.


I didn't sign up for 2009, and I am glad that I didn't. The Ironman will be here forever and I have had my run..... for now. I have this great big fitness base that I didn't blow yesterday by plugging through a race I shouldn't have.


My attention will return to the 70.3 distance for sure for 2009. I am not sure what's in store for the remainder of 2008. Part of me wants to hit August hard and rock out some good sprints in Sept. Part of me wants to shut down and run all fall long.


Part of me is so unsure.


I swam in Mirror Lake this morning. My neurologist friend evaluated me on Main Street in Lake Placid and said I was ok to swim and run. No biking for 2 weeks, as this is not my first concussion. I have been passing people on the street and forgetting their names. I am on a delay in my response to people. My husband won't let me drive the car.


When I was swimming I felt much better. Like the fog is lifting and the healing has begun. Life is going to go on. I have no desire to quit my sport and I am not all that pissed off.


There was a reason that what happened yesterday.... happened. I won't know it for a while but there will be a day when I say..... that's why.


I am so very touched by the amount of emails and phone calls that I have received. Thank you to Kevin and Kitima for taking care of me. Thanks to Rich, Melissa and everyone in the tent for hanging with me.

That you respect how important this is to me, and you allow me to have my grief.... is so heartwarming. One of the rays of sunlight in this is I feel so supported. And supported by people who understand my passion for what I do. Who don't discount this as just a race.


My yoga teacher Cyndi asked me if I could just allow myself to be human. That really stuck with me. I can. I can allow myself to be human. I can allow myself to stumble and I can allow myself to fall.


Because we get back up again.


So keep your eyes on the 2009 fashion line. The Mary Eggers swim helmet will be available at Interbike 2009. I am pretty sure I can get Lisa Bentley or Desiree Ficker to model it for me, or why not myself?


Because in the next 2 weeks if I do anything that causes me to hit my head again, and I god forbid sustain another concussion, I will have a serious problem. Then I will be wearing the swim helmet forever.


And if you are one of the first 200 people to order the Mary Eggers swim helmet, I will paint your name on it..... for free. If you are very lucky enough you will make the list for camp HTFU on Eggers' island and don't worry, with the sales of the swim helmet, your trip to camp will be on me.