Sound to Narrows
So yesterday I ran the Sound to Narrows 12k in Tacoma and had some good news and bad news. The good news is I’m happy with my time again and stepped it up a little bit from my time on Beat the Bridge. Considering that conditions were terrible (raining), the Sound to Narrows course is a much harder (see the elevation map, which I completely missed before doing the race and compare to a flat 8K), and simply being able to keep a comparable pace (which you can project using this online calculator) I feel very happy about that progress.
The bad news is I was hyperthermic at the end of the race and had a temperature of 106°. So until the times are posted I won’t know exactly where my time was because I don’t remember seeing the clocks. I do know it really doesn’t matter that much because if the crew wasn’t there I might have died. They put me in an ice bath for about twenty minutes which eventually got my temperature down to 101°. Then I was taken by ambulance to Tacoma General hospital and by the time I arrived I was hypothermic with a temperature of about 96°. After about an hour and a half of taking blood, running tests, and doing the regular hospital stuff, they let me go.
It’s hard to tell what caused the hyperthermia except for, obviously, working too hard. But there were probably other factors that could have led to it. I probably didn’t get enough sleep the night before - not for lack of trying, I just couldn’t sleep. I may not have been adequately hydrated - I had some water beforehand but didn’t take any drinks on the course and probably should have, though I’ve done runs this long at this pace without trouble (but they were flat). And possibly the rain, which was between a light to moderate drizzle throughout and which may have inhibited my ability to sweat and lose body heat through evaporation. But I definitely stepped up the pace on the last hill and that was probably the worst choice. At least I stepped it up until my brain started to cook. Tom, who ran with me throughout the race, mentioned that there was a point in the last hill where my pace dropped off considerably. In hindsight there was a point where I remember feeling disoriented but knew I was under half a mile to the finish and didn’t want to let up.
My friend Katie drove (and took second in womens!) and a new friend, Tom, who was a good inspiration and didn’t pressure me to run harder throughout the run at all was along (Tom, I should mention, deserves a Swedish star for running me into the hospital instead of the morgue). They both stuck around throughout the whole deal, even though Tom’s wife and daughter had come down for the run and he was to go back with them and even though Katie was scheduled to work. I definitely felt awful about the situation but felt incredibly thankful for such supportive friends. After I was discharged, we had a short lunch at the Swiss Tavern and drove back to Seattle, where my plans for future running now include: obey my body, do long runs with a partner, and spend more time understanding physiology and nutrition.
UPDATE 2007.06.11 Results are coming in
Furry 5K results are in - bib
in men’s is me - Tanya was
and Eva handily beat us to the finish in bib
(but she didn’t have a dog, uh, holding her back?). Sound to Narrows
times (where I was bib 1644) aren’t in yet but it wasn’t chipped so
that’s probably what should be expected.