My last evening in Richmond was dinner at Dr Moose Herrington’s house. (he did the surgery on my foot) Dr Rob Green was there too, so tri talk was the main topic and Libby Herrington makes a killer chicken burrito!

Big was my surprise to see the elaborate welcome his 3 kids organized: A well researched, home made poster:

Molly, Jacob, Abigail and 1x Caveman.

Molly and Abigale are both triathletes, (just like their dad) and train with the Endorphin kids group out of Richmond. Read on …

My surgeon, Dr Moose Herring from Richmond VA, is also an avid triathlete. We had become quite close over the past week and last night his family (more in next post) invited me over for a fare well dinner. He let me have these cool pics he took during the 2nd surgery.

Yes, these gory pics are legal on the internet, but not for the faint hearted!

Before 2nd surgery.

“Clean as a whistle”- Doc’s own words

Read on …

After a long and painful monday night, a red and puffy foot greeted me on tuesday morning.  I ran for the Doctor right away. I have had gangrene in this foot when I was 19  and it was almost amputated. (see scar on ankle) I know all about red and puffy and how easily it can go from “slightly red” to “green and smelly” in a few hours.

Toes are red, stitches are black, give me a few weeks, and I’LL BE BACK!

Dr Matt who did the cleaning and stitching on race day gave the wound a push and puss spouted forth. He immediately called Dr Marion Herring (Orthopedic Sports Medicine) and schedule surgery tuesday pm. It seems like every doctor in Richmond is a triathlete. Matt is more of a a cyclist, Marion did a 70.3 over the weekend and is doing 70.3 Worlds in Perth later. Dr Booth (aneasteologist) did his 1st sprint tri a few weeks ago and his assistant Heather is a triathlete too.

Needless to say I was taken care of like royalty and I feel safe and secure with their expert knowledge as Doctor/triathletes. Read on …

Hi, this is Nikola…

I just chatted to Lisbeth, Conrad’s mom, and got some info on how Conrad is.

He was operated last night due to the infection from the cut he got during the XTERRA Richmond race.

The leg was infected and they needed to clean and flush the wound.

Conrad will stay in hospital for at last two more days.

If you wish to support Conrad you can leave a message on his Facebook wall, send him a twitter message or send him a get well ecard.

Conrad will most probably not race XTERRA Little Rock.

The black stuff in there is rotting steel girder and James River mud. They breed us tough in Africa…

3 minutes before the start I moved a stray swim buoy to where it should be and kicked an old, rusty steel girder lodged in the mud under water. The gash was huge and completely black with rusty steel slime. I hobbled to the waters edge and the athletes parted way in a “whooooa!”

The race was about to start any moment and I had no idea how bad the injury was. One of the age group athletes (Kristen I think) is a doctor and came over for help. She said “those are tendons”, but they dont seems damaged as I could move my toes.

I somehow thrive on hardship and said: “I’m racing” A 1st aid crew quickly put gauze over it (to keep the dirt in?) and wound Ceran wrap around it.

A fellow pro yelled at me- “Race starts in 1 minute”. Fortunately there wasnt any time to think- the gun went and within a few minutes minutes so did the ceran wrap. Thats when it started hurting. Skin flapping around and I could visualize the flithy funk of the James River in flood irrigating the rusty steel girder out of the wound. I didnt care about keeping up or reading the tricky currents- I just flailed arms and tried to keep my left foot still.

Read on …