Today was quite a day for me. I started by straightening up the house and vacuuming, then I went outside and mowed the lawn, then I went for a 14 mile run. I am sore, I am tired, and I am trying to get off the couch so that I can punch down the rising dough... the timer's going off, I'll be right back... ok, I'm back- doughball punched down and reformed, now I have to wait 30 minutes before I shape them into loaves, then I will go to Family Game Night at the church.
I think I may have dehydrated myself today. When I do long runs, I always wear a Camelbak that carries 50 oz of water. More often than not, there is still a little water in it by the time I come home. I will often, when my miles will exceed 12, pack two additional bottles of 10 oz each, especially when it is hot out. Generally, when I get to the last two bottles, my emergency supply, I know it's time to head home.
Today was a very warm day to run, and you know I've preached hydration, but for some reason, even though I had planned to go 14 miles, it didn't occur to me to pack the extra water. What's more, by the time I was at about 10 miles, I noticed the 50 oz were almost gone. There's a point in this particular route I take where you can make a decision, turn here for 12 miles, here for 13, or here for 14... I don't know what it was that made me make the turn for 14- perhaps I wanted to prove how tough I was, or I was just thinking how great a training this is, to run near empty... but in all honesty, looking back, I knew I should have turned to go home.
Sometimes the drive to push ourselves beyond where we think our limitations are overrides common sense. I was certainly tired and sore when that time to make the decision hit, but I didn't interpret that fatigue as something to be concerned about- I just pushed through... my pack went dry by mile 12, which meant that I had 2 more miles to run, in heat, without any way of hydrating myself (fortunately, if it got severe, I did have my cell phone- though the water that comes from the cell phone usually tastes like silicone).
It was hard, but I made it home. It never got severe, but I also didn't pee for like 3 hours after I got home and it was a dark yellow, that's when it hit me that I was approaching a danger zone.
The weather is hotter now, and when we run in hotter weather, we need to remember to drink a lot of water and stay attuned to our bodies' needs. We can make it through, pushing the red-line, possibly going over and surviving, but we might also be doing irreparable damage to our bodies in the process.
Alberto Salazar, in his book 14 Minutes, talks about this as it relates to his 14 minutes clinical death. 14 Minutes is his autobiography. He details his career as an elite distance runner and highlights many races that were made famous, like the "Duel in the Sun" which was a famous duel between Salazar and Dick Beardsley in the 1982 Boston Marathon. Salazar winning the marathon by a mere 2 seconds.
Alberto Salazar had a reputation of running past the "red-line" to exhaustion and nearly died because of this at least once. Crossing finish lines and just collapsing. However, though he was considered extremely healthy, he still collapsed almost 25 years later and died for 14 minutes as he had a massive heart attack. No one knows for sure why, but many of the theories go back to these events where he had heat stroke, heat exhaustion, severe dehydration, etc. These conditions most likely weakened his heart, creating plaque, and, over the years, it all caught up.
I bring this up only to highlight that there is no need nor reason for those of us "Citizen Runners" especially, to push beyond that red-line. It's OK to only go 10 miles instead of 14. It's OK if we need an extra day off. It's OK if we make a speed workout into an easy run. We need to be careful when to push and when to hold back. It's great to push ourselves, but we need to know when we're going too far.
We, the citizen runners, are the best advertisements for others to get outside and run. We know the benefits and the joys and we want to share it with others. But every time we get injured because we went too far, we feed into the lie that running is not good and give evidence for others to never try. So please, fellow runner, heed this warning, hydrate well, rest well, eat well, don't push the red line too much, and be careful out there.
Well, it's time to shape the bread loaves, then get to game night. God Bless you all!
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