Forums >Off the Beaten Path>Experience: The Marathon Almost Killed Me
Tessa
Probably not. I've had some bad races, certainly, and I've done my share of barfing at the finish line, but I wouldn't swear off something for life because of one bad experience. (If we all did that, there would be a heck of a lot more only children on the planet.)
The guy is 6'7" and 17 stone (17 x 14 = 238 pounds), which is quite a bit of body mass. If he was fighting an infection of some kind and trying to propel that mass across the finish line in under 4 hours, I'm not surprised he got sick. I'm glad he recovered, and I wish him many more years of running and more races if he decides to get back in the pool.
Good Bad & The Monkey
The marathon did not almost kill him.
His body recovered. With medical help, for sure, but it recovered. Without medical help he very likely still would have recovered.
But the thing is, he ran undertrained, overweight on a hot and humid day. He did not drink enough fluid. And he kept going despite that his body was trying to tell him to stop. The marathon did not almost kill him, but that he ignored his body's needs and signals sure did cause some trouble.
Regardless. The marathon did not almost kill him.
I'm running somewhere tomorrow. It's going to be beautiful. I can't wait.
Poor baby
Trent's response is pretty much what I thought about when I read this.
I have been in his shoes in the 2007 Chicago Marathon when I pushed way too hard in the beginning of the race for the conditions that day. By the time my body forced me to slow down it was already too late. I finished the race, had a post-race beer(mistake), found my wife and next thing I know I'm flat on my back with a whole bunch of faces peering down at me asking if I'm OK. Every time I'd stand I'd get dizzy again. I was not OK for another hour. Just sat there on the curb while my wife supplied me with hydration. My fault, not the marathon's or the weather's. Learned a lesson that day but it wasn't to not run or train or race to the best of my abilities. DNS or walk/jog is just fine with me in adverse conditions.
I have felt really bad (loss of cognative skills and difficult to maintain verticality) for 30-90 minutes after marathons (Only a few times). But I usually do end up sick after 24 hour races. I end up with chest congestion for 3-5 days before all the stuff clears out.
Feb 1st 50k winter trail race this year, I was out of shape and it took 6:26 slipping around the trails. I already felt wanky the day before - Flu symptopms. I survived the race, but couldn't even bring myself to drink more than 1 beer post race. I was in bed the next 4 days straight (Well 80+ of 96 hours), worst I have felt from flu ever. Running the race did not give me the flu, but it might have beaten me down a little that I had a harder time dealing with the flu.
Or it might have been an alcoholic DT symptoms - Night sweats (Lost 7 pounds one night), unable to sleep, fever, headache, loss of appetite, hallucinations / nightmares etc.
There seems to be a lot of similarities ...
I am fuller bodied than Dopplebock