The Race That Wasn't (Steelhead Specialty: Week 5)

I was scheduled to do my first Olympic distance triathlon this morning.  I was all packed up, dinner was eaten, and I was almost on schedule to get to bed at a reasonable hour before my 3am alarm.

So much stuff!

All packed into one very big backpack

Then it all came apart.

We gave Walter and Spot dinner around 10pm and Walter, who is usually a very enthusiastic eater, just nosed the food around and put his head down on his paw.  Uh oh...not good.  When a bunny stops eating (and subsequently pooping), it's an emergency.  Normally this would be cause for a trip to the emergency room, but thanks to Dr. Beast, we have the required drugs at home and we know how to use them.  Before we started the drugs, we decided to try using abdominal massage to jump start Walter's gut.

Long story short...Mr. R&R and I were massaging Walter's belly until about 2am and he finally produced a little poop!  That meant that we didn't have to resort to using drugs, but it also meant that we were an hour away from the alarm going off.  I curled up on the floor next to Walter and Mr. R&R and hoped for the best.  When the alarm went of at 3am, there was just no way I was going to be able to drive 90 minutes to the race site and race.  It would have been the equivalent of driving/racing drunk.

I went back to sleep and by 9am Walter was doing even better.  We're still not out of the woods by a long shot, but I think we're on the road to recovery.  He's continuing to nibble on kale, making poop, and we're starting to hear little gurgles in his belly meaning that his digestive tract is starting to work again.

Ultimately, I'm really bummed out that I missed my chance to swim nearly the half iron distance in race conditions before Steelhead, but as much as I wanted this race, I want my sweet little baby bunny more.  There's always another race, but there's only one Walter.