Germantown, and the trip to the Emergency Room.....

Okay, where to start, hey, I didn't finish Germantown. How's that?
DAMN IT!

This is long……

Alright, I am still in a bad mood, but I will try my best to give an accurate account of what happened.
The race, first off is a great race. This is a small race, and the RD: Wesley Fenton, has put together a really wonderful event. I'll be back!

We started at 9:00 AM, and the crowd thinned out probably around mile 3 or so. I really like the trails in Germantown Metro Park. The leaves covered the obstacles, and I nearly went flying face first down a hill due to a buried root. I can't deny that one 'casue someone saw me! The hills are nice and rolling, with a few steep ones here and there, plus some stream crossings, which you can jump over.

Anyway, everything was going great during the first loop around. I had a goal of a 7 hour finish. In order to run a 7 hour, I had to do the first loop in about 1:41, and the rest in about the same amount of time. This would allow for about 15 minutes of fade for the entire race. The first loop was ran conservatively and I came in at 1:44. No big deal, I could make that time up as I knew what was coming, and I felt great. I started off on my second loop, and about a mile out, I noticed that my heart rate was abnormally high. I thought okay, I'll just walk a little to get it to come down, and will start back up. Well, I couldn't get it to go below 180 bpm. I was running aerobically at this point.

When I run trails at Mohican, my average heart rate is around 166-168 bpm. Not bad at all actually. It does get up there into the 180's, but never peaks out at 189 or 190.
I'm like what is going on? I cannot be dehydrated. I've been drinking Smart Water which is electrolyte water that I’ve been drinking for years. I typically drink this before races or during hot weather with no problems. I finished off over 100 ounces the past day and a half on top of regular bottled water, and 2 - S! caps per day with the bottled water.
The day before the race, I started my schedule, of solid food for lunch, and the rest of the day/night, it was just Ensure, and S! caps. The liquid food makes for a better run with NO stomach issues. Since I have done this at Mohican, I have had good success. It's when I fall off the wagon, and eat solid food with milk before a Mohican run is where issues start.

Anyway, I actually felt fine (stomach wise) when my heart rate was jumping. All I could do half way into the second loop was walk. I was walking down hills and my heart rate was 180. Walking on straights, it was 186, up hills, it was 189 or above.
Well, guess what? I was very dehydrated. Despite my taking regular S! caps (1 per hour), I was not absorbing fluids. I was taking in my regular 4 hour bottle of Perpetuem, and plain water. I did not drink Gatorade as it causes stomach problems.
I got back to the end of the second loop humiliated, and at first, didn't say anything about quitting. I was drinking Chicken soup that I brought in a Thermos, and just sat there for a few. After about 10 minutes, I new I didn't have anything left. I told the guy I was done because my heart rate was just too high. That set off a chain reaction, and they wanted to call an Ambulance. WTH?? No way. "I will be fine". I thought......
I sent my wife off to the Dayton Mall for some shopping during the race, so I had to call her to come pick me up.
On our way back through Dayton, I start feeling really, really bad. I've never felt this bad before. There for a moment, I knew something was terribly wrong.
I almost lost consciousness several times, I was shaking uncontrollably. I felt like I was going to die. Seriously.
I was so cold at that point. My breathing was labored, and my pulse was weak.
Anyway, I told my wife to pull over at Wendy's (No, I wasn't hungry) and had her go ask someone for directions to a Hospital.

We ended up finding an "Urgent Care". - Big Mistake.
They need to either change the name to something like "Willy-Nilly Care" or "We Don't Really Care" or better yet: simply go out of business. They are as worthless as an empty beer bottle.
I go in and explain things, and they said, "You need to go to an Emergency Room". I said, I am getting ready to pass out here. "Well, again, you need an Emergency Room".
I wanted so badly to say: "Why are you guys called Urgent Care"? I had no energy, or strong enough breath to argue. They told us directions to a real hospital which we eventually found. At that point, I started to feel better. I could feel the blood working back into my stomach area. I told my wife, “let's go get something to eat, and see how I feel”.
We went to the cafeteria, and ate some really nasty hospital food, but it did make me feel better. Mashed Taters and glowing-green-gravy was the: “It’s what’s for Dinner” item. I think the gravy was left over Barium from the Radiology department. Hmmm….
We left, and I was able to drive the rest of the way home. I feel great right now.

I need to find out why my stomach is shutting down. This happened at Haliburton, but in a worse way. Something that happened at Germantown, which happened at Haliburton, was that my eyes were really blurry, and I could not see. At one point, I didn’t know if I was on the correct trail.

At least this time at Germantown, my stomach didn’t hurt.
I'll be making a doctor's appointment really soon. I can't keep doing this.
At one point, I was so pissed off that I said: "I am done with running".
Well, not quite.
I am starting all over in terms of training to see if I can get to the root of this issue. I'll also be doing a lot of research on this. Any input is greatly appreciated, so please respond!

It's 2:55 in the morning.......

I have a race (Germantown) that is starting in 6 hours and I can't sleep. It's not helping any that my dog and my wife are sawing logs like the family owned sawmill that's behind schedule. It's kinda funny though.

I work 3rd shift so, it's kinda hard to sleep during this time anyway. Obviously, I have the night off tonight.
Yesterday morning I went to Lowes, and bought the majority of the lumber I need to build my shed in my back yard. I was pulling sheets of plywood off the stack and felt a pull in my lower back. “Here comes the pain” I thought. “Damn it! Why did I decide to do this a day before a race?”
I have a chronically tight lower back and hamstrings, here soon I will need to start doing Yoga again the stretch them out.
So, as I lay here with my lower back in pain, and cannot sleep due to the sawmill, which is making me laugh, I cannot help to think how my race will go. The other racers will really enjoy me with the smell of Icy Hot wafting their way while on the trail. I feel sorry for whoever is behind me. Race Report will be due later tonight, or tomorrow. Stay Tuned.......

Slate Run Metro Park - 4 miles

It was a cold wet run tonight, but I loved every minute of it. Pace was relaxed as this will be the last run before Germantown on Saturday.
Slate Run is about 15 minutes from my house and offers a nice run on trails without seeing many other people. There are great hill sections with wide open meadows, and many acres of marshland.
I just heard that this rain could stretch into the weekend. I am guessing that Germantown is going to turn a little muddy and miserable.

4 miles - 38:20 / 9:32 Pace

Two Miles with my Best Friend

Tonight was a quick two miles with my lab Buxton. I was planning a longer run, but he was staring at me with those big sad eyes. I could tell he wanted to go, so I said: "You Ready?"
He was jumping around like he had a hot poker on his tail as we went out the door.

I haven't ran him much since he has hip dysplasia, and is in need of another hip replacement.
I had an appointment scheduled tomorrow with OSU Vet Hospital but had to cancel it due to finances. They require a lot of money down to take him home (about $ 1800.00) Plus you have a remaining $1200.00 you have to pay off in 90 days.
I will have it done in January when I have saved up enough.

He wasn't much into posing tonight. As always, he is a little camera shy.

Slower runners don't count......or do they?

I was reading through this mornings Columbus Dispatch about the Columbus Marathon, oh wait, excuse me, The Nationwide Better Health Columbus Marathon. What a way to kill our home town marathon name. Let's slap yet another Nationwide logo on something that does not need it. Give me a break.

Anyway, I was reading about the marathon, and noticed at the end of the paragraph it states: "More coverage and the top 1,000 finishers in the race."
What? what about the remaining finishers? Do they not count because they were too slow? I remember my first Columbus Marathon. Back when it was just called: "The Columbus Marathon" I was so proud to see my name published in the Columbus Dispatch. There it was: my first marathon. -I still have it by the way.

I started thinking about all those who may have wanted to see their name in the paper. After all, how often do you get the chance to see your name in THE PAPER?
So to ponder my original question: Were they too slow to count? Yes/No/Maybe????
I think the Dispatch would have been overwhelmed by the record number of entrants/finishers for the printing of the lowly Monday edition.
I would have to guess it would be as thick if not thicker than the Sunday paper.
Being a slow runner myself, I feel for the people who did not make to the press.

Again: Do they count? ABSOLUTLEY.
All runners count including the walkers. Could you imagine walking 8 or more hours during a race? Hmmm, sounds like something I would do during an ULTRA!

Tryin this blog thing.

Okay, even though I've never seemed to be interested in writing a Blog, I thought maybe it would help motivate me in my training.I am not sure whether or not I will be creating daily or weekly entries. It may end up being a combination of both.
I am working on getting myself back to the condition I was in before I was injured, which was shortly after the 2005 Cleveland Marathon.It all started in my right groin and hamstring area. At it's full height, the pain was ingrained in nearly all of my right thigh and hamstring area. After about a year and a half of physical therapy, massage therapy, and many painful runs, the cause was in my lower back.
I am running my second Ultra Marathon this coming Saturday; The Germantown 50k in Dayton, Ohio.
I am not sure what to expect from this 50k since my first 50k; Haliburton Forest, went south half way into the race. I was not feeling well the night before the race, and ended up having a bad race.
With Germantown, my training was going okay until about two weeks ago, I got a really bad cold. It was weird since I had not been sick since the 2005 New York City Marathon.
Hopefully, I will be able to survive this 50k, and at least get back a little bit of my dignity.
Don't get me wrong, I am happy I toughed it out and finished, I was humiliated because I was literally "finished" before the halfway point. My body just stopped absorbing fuel, and simply ran out. I walked a good portion of the way back which was very hard for me to do.
I will continue to update this Blog with my training progress, and possibly do some back dating with entries of Haliburton Forest, and other running related posts.