The End of the Super Athlete

Chapter 1 Alan

Alan was incredibly fit. He trained full time every single day. During the week he cycled, ran and swam. At the gym, he'd use the stairmaster, the Nordic ski machine and the rowing machine. He tended to stay away from the weights, unless he was healing after an injury. At the weekend, he would meet up with his team mates and do more training. That could be rock climbing, abseiling, kayaking, white water rafting, pot holing, bouldering, canyoning, orienteering, hiking. They'd run up mountains, tackle scree slopes other adventurers would avoid. They'd ride horses or go free diving in a lake or go open water swimming. They'd often do all that with the minimum amount of sleep. You see, he was an adventure racer.
There were often only three or four races held annually in the whole world. Most of them were held over about a week, but the main one could take a month or longer to complete. They were completed in stages, with some mandatory stops and safety checks. aside from that, it was up to the team where you slept and for how long. The race was often held over terrain, which could be over desert, jungle, marsh, snow, rocks, mountains, rivers, ocean, grassland, ice, canyons, or even urban terrain. They could be asked to get from A to B by any means. They had to do their own navigation, they had to carry their own food and water, or forage it on the way.
It was important to have a slim, wiry frame and to be able to get by on minimal rations. A muscular frame weighed more and cost more calories to move around. If he was rock climbing and clinging onto the edge of a cliff with his fingertips, he did not want to be trying to support a heavy muscular body.
During the course of one race, in was possible to lose up to 30 lbs, so they'd usually try to pack on a few extra pounds of 'ballast' beforehand.
Of course the training did not come cheap. Equipment was donated by manufacturers in exchange for advertising. Training was sponsored by companies looking for advertising space. Every item of clothing Alan owned had some kind of company or team logo.
The logistics for putting on such a race were an absolute nightmare. Safety of the teams was paramount. There had to be medical care at each base camp. They had to be able to evacuate via helicopter or other transport anywhere on the course. Teams were eliminated if they fell too far behind.
Sometimes the political situation in a particular country was too volatile or the government would not allow certain individuals to visit.

Alan's whole life was consumed by his chosen sport. He had no time for relationships, unless they were also an adventure athlete. Everything he ate had been assessed for its nutritional content by a sports dietician. He didn't eat for pleasure, or the taste. It was simply fuel.

Injuries were a regular part of their life. In race conditions, they would support each other to continue racing and get over the finish line. Even if it meant physically carrying that team member. They learned to ignore pain. The only was they would withdraw from a race was if the organisers pulled them.

Alan was the wrong side of thirty. It was getting harder to keep up his punishing schedule, but he had no plans to quit.
He kept his hair short so that it didn't get in his way in training. He was thinning at the front anyway. He had the type of mousy wispy hair that looked lank easily. He would shave his beard about once a week. He didn't want to spend time shaving every day when he could be training, but he also didn't want to have to put the effort in to keeping a beard neat and tidy. If he was in a long race there was no proper washing facilities. Other than getting wet in river water or in the rain, they would all remain unwashed and unshaven for the duration. They got used to the smell of each other's sweat and after a while they no longer noticed it.

Then one day he was crippled with abdominal pain. He tried to canoe across a lake, but he could hardly bend forwards. His team mates got him to the other side and called for an ambulance. He had appendicitis and had to have an operation.
That was him off the team for a minimum of six weeks. Then he would have to build his fitness back up again, which could take months.
Not being on the team meant he'd lost all the sponsorship deals he'd been involved with. He had no savings. He had to live on the state, or go out and get a job.

His team mates quickly found a replacement for Alan amongst the team reserves. Alan's recovery to even get to reserve level was going to be hard without funding. If he went out and got himself a job, he wouldn't have time to put all the training in. It was a catch 22 situation.
He thought he'd give part time working a go to get the best of both worlds.

None of Alan's ex-team mates rang him or texted him when he was in hospital to find out how he was. No one enquired how his recovery was getting on. Alan did not expect them to. It sounded harsh, but he knew that those on the team had to focus on themselves, the training and the other team members to the exclusion of everybody and everything else.
Alan felt lonely. Everyone he knew was involved in adventure racing and they were spread out all over the country and other countries. His parents had both died during Covid. He had no siblings. Friends he'd grown up with and went to school with all had their own lives now.

Everything Alan knew was wrapped up in adventure racing. Even sitting down to watch the news on the television made him restless.
He restarted his training before he was supposed to. He bought a pantie girdle off Amazon to give his abdomen extra support when he went out for a run. The nylon of the garment made him sweat, the tightness of it was so uncomfortable, he thought the garment should be recategorised as a torture device. He tried cycling, but the bent over position was too much for his stitches and one of the three inch long laparoscopic wounds opened up. That delayed his recovery even further.