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!