Jun

7

Sunday morning I woke up at 6:00 to run a 10k race that ended up with me taking a short ride in the ambulance to the trauma center after passing out from dehydration.

There was a 5k race and a 10k race part of OKC Corporate Challenge. The 5k runners just run 1 loop and the 10k runners are to do 2 loops of the course.

It is always hot and humid for this race. This year it was even more so than usual. For some unknown reason they did not have water on the course. I went out what I thought was a reasonable pace and kept up with a former college runner 3 or 4 years out of college, but he was doing the 5k. The first loop was only about 18:30.

I made it to about 6 miles where things started to go terribly wrong. First I apparently turned off Lincoln onto 13th street and was suppose to turn on 10th for the final block. I don't really remember why I missed this turn but deliriousness and wishful thinking do not mix well. Soon after I remember falling down scraping my knees. I got up thinking I only had 1 block to go, tried to continue. I don't think I made it more than 10 meters before I was down again. By now I my stubbornness has kicked in and I am determined to finish. But remember wobbling a few more steps and went down a 3rd time. And got back up. The fourth time I do not even know if I took any step, but I remember thinking I better try walking in the grass, because this falling down was killing my knees. I do not really remember going down the 4th time. From the lump on my head I must have hit my head on the curb. But I do remember calling for help, and could not understand why nobody was coming. I thought I must have been less than 100 meters to the finish. Luckily for me on the corner of 13th and the Lincoln is a hospital and a nurse saw me laying in the curb. Next thing I know I a cursing the medics for not letting me finish and strapping me down.

In retro-spec there were many things I could have done that would have got me through the extra 2/10 of a mile. First I woke up with a little intestinal problem and should have called in a sub. But I wanted to run a 800 meter leg of a 1600 m relay at noon and dropping out meant being ineligible for the relay. Second I drank Gatorade that morning, deviating from my normal routine of drinking only water that close to a race. The nurse said my blood sugar was over 300. Third was the day before. I rested up on my running, but mistakenly thought this meant I could do other activities. I spent most of the morning working outside in the heat. Then I went swimming with my daughter for 30 mins that evening. Also I had Pizza for supper. Each of these dehydrated me. Finally and perhaps most important was I went out too hard. From the turn around, me and the 5k winner had over a minute and a half on the other 5k runners, and who knows how far ahead I was from the next 10k runner.


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