Daley blames us too
Okay, this is really starting to tick me off. I carried water, I slowed my pace (more with every mile), but I do not deal with heat well. It's not something I can overcome with training or conditioning; it's a simple biological reality.
See, one of my legs is basically scar tissue. To be fully honest, it's only scar tissue from ankle to just under the knee (and then around the back of the knee), and then scar tissue for most of the thigh. The other leg has a bunch of scar tissue around the thigh. (Multiple hits from a car, then the scars from skin grafts, including several failed ones, respectively. OTOH, I know exactly what a compound, complex spiral fracture looks and feels like, because it happened to me almost 30 years ago. But I digress.) Scar tissue does not sweat. I can run hard intervals, and aside from drips from my shorts, there is a distinct lack of sweat on much of my legs. No sweat means it's harder for me to shed heat. (It's a big plus for winter running though - 35 degrees is quite pleasant, aside from hands and head, which are easily remedied.)
Anyway, with the official cooling stations all being in the back 6.2 miles of the race, I was hosed. I had planned to keep my pace down, then basically stuff my shorts and/or hat with ice and use several of the sponges. Guess what I never saw?
I bailed because I was getting stupid, though not yet so stupid that I couldn't tell. My wife and future brother-in-law both tell me that I was babbling a bit when I bailed, and I ran a pretty high fever until sometime last night - my wife guessed it at 101 or 102, but to be honest, I didn't bother checking. I probably should have, but since I could keep fluids and solids down, I figured it would solve itself in a day or so (which it did).
I'll run again - Goofy is coming up. I might do Chicago again, but if that weather is a possibility, I am either going to fill a 3.0L capacity camelbak with ice water, or get one of those cooling vests, because I can't trust the race officials to take care of my cooling needs until mile 20, apparently.
See, one of my legs is basically scar tissue. To be fully honest, it's only scar tissue from ankle to just under the knee (and then around the back of the knee), and then scar tissue for most of the thigh. The other leg has a bunch of scar tissue around the thigh. (Multiple hits from a car, then the scars from skin grafts, including several failed ones, respectively. OTOH, I know exactly what a compound, complex spiral fracture looks and feels like, because it happened to me almost 30 years ago. But I digress.) Scar tissue does not sweat. I can run hard intervals, and aside from drips from my shorts, there is a distinct lack of sweat on much of my legs. No sweat means it's harder for me to shed heat. (It's a big plus for winter running though - 35 degrees is quite pleasant, aside from hands and head, which are easily remedied.)
Anyway, with the official cooling stations all being in the back 6.2 miles of the race, I was hosed. I had planned to keep my pace down, then basically stuff my shorts and/or hat with ice and use several of the sponges. Guess what I never saw?
I bailed because I was getting stupid, though not yet so stupid that I couldn't tell. My wife and future brother-in-law both tell me that I was babbling a bit when I bailed, and I ran a pretty high fever until sometime last night - my wife guessed it at 101 or 102, but to be honest, I didn't bother checking. I probably should have, but since I could keep fluids and solids down, I figured it would solve itself in a day or so (which it did).
I'll run again - Goofy is coming up. I might do Chicago again, but if that weather is a possibility, I am either going to fill a 3.0L capacity camelbak with ice water, or get one of those cooling vests, because I can't trust the race officials to take care of my cooling needs until mile 20, apparently.
Labels: Chicago marathon, DNF, Mayor Daley
posted by Garou at 8:34 PM
2 Comments:
Kudos to you for getting out there. This was my first and I still get verklempt thinking about it.
Hope to see you out there on the road in a future 26.2...
It was brutal. The handling of the race and the aftermath is terrible. I'm glad that you're okay.
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