The Sick And The Suffering

• Posted: August 17, 2008
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• Author: Shéamus
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• Filed under: Workouts
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• Tags: No tags set for this entry.

I’ve been pretty luck, all things considered, that I’ve made it almost a quarter of the way through this thing and really haven’t had any serious problems with illness or injuries. It’s got to the point where each day I just wake up assuming everything is going to be as right as rain.

And for the most part, that’s true. Today, however, after waking up about 8am and eating my breakfast, I suddenly started to feel really, really lousy. I’d planned to do 8 miles about 10am, but by 11am I’d been back in bed for about 90 minutes and stayed there until well after midday. My symptoms included, of course, the now obligatory sour stomach, but also hot and cold sweats, a fever, clammy hands, waves of nausea, extreme tiredness and general lethargy. Not a winning combination ahead of a big run.

So, I put it off until 4pm. It was hot today, and the forecast said that was going to be the hottest part of the day, but I didn’t have much choice. My wife’s mother had was cooking a big roast for 6pm and I didn’t want to have to run after that. That was the weird thing - while I felt really quite ill, my appetite was solid, and I ate intelligently all day to prepare myself for the run. Wholewheat bread, nuts, bananas, almond butter, some wholegrain cereal, soy milk, and about a litre of Powerade.

I set off at 16:08. The first mile was fine. At 1.13 miles, however, my fuel belt began to feel really uncomfortable and the pressure against my abdomen seemed immense. Immediately, my stomach soured again and I had to make a pit stop with some urgency - being unnecessarily frank, I figure I left about half of my bodyweight in the Walgreen’s rest room.

However, despite that, up until two miles I felt pretty good.

Then everything started to fall apart.

Almost literally as soon as the two-mile mark rolled over, I started to feel really lousy again. By 2.5 miles I was staggering all over the place and feeling almost delirious. Whatever I’d done, whatever nutrients I’d taken on board, it wasn’t enough.

At 2.82 miles, I had to stop at another Walgreen’s (they really are on every corner - thankfully) and pick up a 32oz bottle of Powerade. I drank that down while I walked and after almost ten minutes decided to try and run again.

0.18 of a mile later - three miles in total now - I had to stop again. I felt sick. Really, really sick. The heat was so intense, and that combined with a body that was already feeling depleted just left me a mess.

I needed to get out of the sun and found some shelter below a small tree. It was actually pretty cool under there and I sat still for 15 minutes, generally feeling pretty rotten and sorry for myself while trying to drink some more water and Powerade. I knew I had to run some more to keep even remotely close to my mileage goals this week and figured if I could churn out another mile, and do four in total, that would be okay. Sure, it’s half of what I wanted to do, but in my condition it felt like a small victory.

I did the mile (8:36) and then walked again for a bit, sipping water. Eight minutes later I realised I had about a mile to walk home and somehow decided it made logical sense for me to run that mile, as opposed to walking it, as that would mean I would get out of the heat and home faster. I mean, it did make some kind of crazy sense, because the heat at this point was almost unbearable, but I felt like crap, and this situation was not improved by making an immediate wrong turn and having to double back.

8:41 or so later, I was at my front door. I did 5.17 miles in total. The split below is actually backwards - I stopped and restarted my Garmin at three and four miles because on both occasions I figured I was done. But I wasn’t.

Overall, it’s a result, but it’s left me some loose change I need to make up the rest of this week. To be honest, though, right now I just hope I feel okay when I wake up tomorrow morning. I’ve no idea why I suddenly got ill - a homemade tuna sandwich late last night might be the unlikely culprit - but I’m hoping I just as suddenly become well.

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Meantime, what are your thoughts on Usain Bolt’s 9.69 in the Olympics? Is there any chance at all that it was done naturally, even if every test he does comes back okay?

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