"I want to go home..." I can't believe I said this out loud to Kourtney somewhere between miles 41-47. Somehow I was reduced to an eight year old child. It was a very odd moment of mental weakness for me and not exactly what you want to hear or think for that matter when your in the middle of your first 50 miler. I am still shocked I said that and at the time I meant it. Home is comfortable, calm, with air conditioning. Home has clean clothes. Home has a shower and home has my family and my dog. That is were I wanted to be. However I first had to fight the hardest battle and race I have ever been in and the heat and brutal humidity and many miles were standing in my way. The struggle between brain and body was real and I felt caught in the purgatory between the two.
This is from Web MD:
Heat exhaustion signs and symptoms include:
- Faintness or dizziness
- Nausea or vomiting
- Heavy sweating often accompanied by cold, clammy skin
- Weak, rapid pulse
- Pale or flushed face
- Muscle cramps
- Headache
- Weakness or fatigue
I had every one of the these symptoms on the third lap at The Dirty German Endurance Fest 50 Miler, plus swelling fingers, occasional cold shivers and feelings of being disoriented. This was not how my first 50 was supposed to go down. I felt lost, hopeless, and alone out on the course even though I ran the entire thing with my running buddy Kourtney and ran with many friends. These were foreign feelings to me during a run. I have run countless marathons and tough 50K's but this....this was a superior beast I had never come across. It sounds like I'm sensationalizing the description but I can tell you flat out I am not. The only reasoning I can come up with was the humidity and an untrained body and minds reaction to it. I am not a heat runner and when you couple that with heavy humidity and no breeze it's just makes the oncoming suffering that you know is coming that much harder to cope with.
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| 6:00 am and the humidity has hangin around already. |
