NORTH CAROLINA MARATHON: STATE #11

Well, I completed the North Carolina Marathon yesterday and it nearly killed me. I wasn't well-prepared for the marathon and its heat and its hills. I reached the halfway point in less than 2:30, but then I crashed and burned, taking me around 5:52 to finish.

The temperature at the start was 41 degrees, but rose to 74 before the end. I felt mildly nauseated much of the last several miles. I was very happy to see the finish line, but upon completing, the nausea struck back with a vengeance. I often feel nauseated at the end of a marathon, but this was a little worse. Laying down usually helps, so I sprawled out on the shaded, tiled ground near the medical tent. Nurses there decided to check my blood pressure and my systolic bp was in the 50s and the diastolic wasn't readable. They propped up my feet on a folding chair and kept giving me sports drinks. I chugged them whenever they brought them. As soon as I would try to sit up or stand, I'd grow increasingly nauseated and they said I turned pale. They were going to haul me off to the ER, but some of the local EMS personnel offered the use of their truck and the nurses started an IV on me in the back of their rig. I normally have great veins, but they were having a tough time finding them. After the better part of a liter of fluid, my bp was around 110/70. I was feeling much better and was able to easily walk to my car and drive home. That was scary!

What went wrong? I'm not entirely sure, but I have some ideas. I probably didn't consume enough fluids. Toward the end , the available fluids at the aid stations were getting rather warm and unpalatable, the electrolyte solutions even more so. Ice was only available the few stations with medical personnel. I was able to score a large Zip-loc bag of ice around mile 22 and kept eating ice until it was gone. I was afraid of hyponatremia, so I may have inadvertently restricted my water intake. I had purchased Hammer Endurolytes electrolyte replenishment capsules from Amazon. UPS was supposed to deliver them on Thursday, but they screwed me over and didn't deliver them until Friday after I had left for High Point, a problem that nearly killed me! I had planned on popping several of these during the marathon and drinking lots and lots of water. I searched for electrolyte capsules in Roanoke, VA and High Point/Greensboro, NC, but couldn't find them.

So, I owe a great debt of gratitude to the race's medical personnel, but I'm critical of the race administration for not having cool fluids in the waning hours of the marathon and for not having a better expo, where I could have purchased electrolyte capsules.