A triathlete discovered she had a huge obstacle to overcome after accepting her invitation to the 2019 world championships.
Those setbacks were breast cancer and a double mastectomy.
“I had qualified for worlds, and then I got a letter and I had to answer saying I wanted to go by Oct. 31,” said 42-year-old Kate Armstrong of Okotoks. “I told them the day before (Oct. 30) that I was going and on Halloween I got the diagnosis that I had breast cancer.”
She said she and the family were given choices, such as chemo and radiation, but opted for the mastectomy last November to reduce the chances of the cancer recurring or spreading.
“I thought about it a lot and we were given a very tight timeline,” Armstrong said. “I was training for another half-marathon – I thought about it a lot while I was running… I think it is really hard to make that choice — to change yourself in a way.”
With the support of family, friends, physicians and her trainer she made the decision to go to the ITU World Triathlon Grand Final. She will compete in a standard Olympic triathlon comprised of the 1,500m swim, 40km bike ride and 10km run in Laussane, Switzerland on Sept. 1.
The training process for worlds was a slow one coming off the November surgery.
“I didn’t do anything until two months later and I asked my oncologist what can I do,” she said. “He said I could bike and run by February.”
She started training in her basement on a training bike and treadmill.
However, swimming was difficult as she had lost much of her upper body strength.
“There was a ton of scar tissue,” Armstrong said. “I was really concerned about being able to swim. I was very, very methodical about every day doing all the stretches I was supposed to do. When they told me I could do some weights, I did some free weights.”
It didn’t come easy.
She had to do an exercise, which she described as spelling out the letters similar to the YMCA dance. Initially she could only raise her hands to about chest level.
“It took me about three months before I could actually raise my hands above my head,” Armstrong said. “When I started swimming, I could only swim 10 minutes at a time and I slowly built on it over time… I was very goal-oriented.”
She admits at times she didn’t think it was possible to get ready for worlds.
“When I started I was really frustrated, but if I hadn’t had this goal I’m not sure how it would have gone,” she said. “For sure there were times I got upset and I still get upset.
“My husband (Mike) supported me through the whole thing and my dad, Bram deGus, is actually coming with me.”
She was glad she got a somewhat early diagnosis after initially believing her busy lifestyle was the reason for her fatigue.
“It felt like all of 2018 I was very tired, which I thought was because I was training and I have a very full-time job and I have Ryan who was seven and he’s busy, my husband is busy – I didn’t recover well from any of my races,” said Armstrong, a veterinary assistant at the U of C. “I just attributed it to my life being busy.”
Tired, but strong enough to qualify for the world championships at the Great White North triathlon in Stony Plain in July of 2018, when she was third in her age group of 40-44 at 3:19:15.
Armstrong was a horsewomen, avid biker and athlete while growing up in tiny Canning, Nova Scotia, but when it came to triathlon, her start came naturally in 2013.
“I heard about the Natural High Triathlon here and that was the first one I did – I just had this cheap bike,” she said with a laugh. “And I just went on from there… I love that little triathlon.”
She ran the Natural High event this year as well and finished second among all women. She also had another big time supporter of hers participating: now eight-year-old Ryan Armstrong, a student at Good Shepherd School, who finished second in the Kids 6-9 division.
“I was so happy he wanted to do it,” Kate said with a smile. “I think I was more excited that he did really well at Natural High than how I did.”
It’s been an ordeal, but Kate is on her way to Switzerland.
She considers herself lucky.
“I have a different perspective this year — I don’t get mad if I don’t do well,” said Armstrong while fighting back tears. “I think of people who can’t do this. My friend, I think of what she has gone through with cancer and they don’t get to do things like this.”
Armstrong will be busy in 2020 as well. She qualified at an Edmonton triathlon earlier this summer for the world championship next year.
Her time was nearly 20 minutes faster than her qualifier in Stony Plain in 2018.
To follow the ITU Worlds go to laussane.triathlon.org
