I need to reevaluate my goals after this. If my goals are sending me to the ER, they are too aggressive. I'm not into this ultra running to torture myself. It's the community and camaraderie that I enjoy. Unless otherwise advised, I still intend to run all the races I've registered for, but at a much lower level of intensity.

Holy Crap ! it's not worth trips to the ER . Glad you are feeling better.

No sign of a-fib, no memory loss or confusion.  Unlike the times when I fainted, there was no memory gap and I was aware of what was happening the whole time.  I think with the sudden stop after finishing that my BP may have plummeted, that combined with fatigue being the cause.  One of the signs of how tired I was is the transition to all walking with no intermediate laps where I walked more and ran less.  At times over the last few miles I had laps at sub-15:00 pace which is close to what I do with the Monday evening LRS walking group. That's in contrast to the 17:00-17:30 pace I was walking at Piedmont late in the race and that was a good, strong effort for me.  I had to concentrate solely on my pace and effort that last 10K.  While I appreciated the company and intent of the friend in the 24-hour who paced me much of that time, his constant loud encouragement started to be annoying but I didn't have the energy to ask him to be quieter besides not wanting to hurt his feelings because he had such good intentions.

This is a quandary, because it does seem like you were simply fatigued, but in context it isn't something to mess around with. I'm really impressed with how you nailed your race, I'm extremely happy for you in that respect because I know you haven't had a race where you crushed your goal in awhile due to various factors. But to have a medical emergency after a triumphant result -- where do you go from there? We're all here to support you as you figure it out.

I don't love when people latch on to me in races. Some people just have this idea that they can Save! Your! Race! and... I don't know, it distracts them from their own race, or makes them feel better about their own performance, or... I don't know. As a back of the packer I experience this a lot, someone who wants to Take Me Under Their Wing, or does it to someone around me. It can be hard to find a way to tell them to leave you alone, especially because they're still there, running a similar pace.

George, you're tough as nails for pushing thru and as an older guy myself I understand some of this stuff sure isn't as easy as it used to be. You are certainly an outlier for us geriatric folks. Well done!

Now however since the topic becomes the trip to the ER has had me thinking some the last couple days. Every one mentions the calorie and fluid intake with good reason but myself, I keep going back to your mention of a long run of 12 miles leading up to this. Now when I was young I could bluff a 50k with some questionable training but if I tried to push the pace on a 50k at my current age with only a 12 miler for a long run leading up to it I'm thinking it wouldn't end a whole lot different than yours. IMHO I think it's as simple as not enough long, long, runs leading up to it.

At our age you can't expect the body to do something in a race that you aren't coming close to at all in training. Again, just my opinion for what it's worth. Anyway good job again and keep after it.

I was thinking about this quite a bit while running at the gym.  I'm wondering if your problem was  simply that you didn't listen to your old high school gym teacher, or at least to my gym teacher.

 

We ran a lot of track in gym class in the spring because my school was really big into track and field.  One of the things that the gym teachers always told us when we ran longer distances was once we crossed the finish line to keep moving for a while to prevent the blood from pooling in our legs. Said we'd pass out if we didn't.

 

FWIW, I'll do a type of heart fitness test on the TM or elliptical where I'll go as hard as I can to push my HR to the max then come to a dead stop and track my heart rate to see how fast it drops at one, two, three and five minute intervals.  I always hold onto something for the first minute or so after stopping because I may get rather lightheaded at times.  Just a thought.

I agree.  It wasn't intentional.  I was going to turn in my chip and stopped to talk with the RD because he'd asked me to check in with him after the race after what happened last year, and he happened to be standing there.  Otherwise I would have handed in my chip, then walked down to get more to eat and drink.  I didn't think stopping for a minute would have those consequences so quickly.