Week 11: Dehydration!

Remember to hydrate people! Hydrate a lot, and on a day like today, hydrate some more.

It was a day of record heat. Yesterday broke the record for the hottest June 21st in San Jose downtown history, and today was expected to be hot too, well into the 100's (37 - 40 deg C).

I was confident this time, especially after last week's run. But I still got a fuel belt along (an elastic belt attached to 4 lightweight bottles that go around your waist). Thinking I would be better off with only two bottles, I left behind the other two. Bad idea!

The run was 9 miles this time, and the start at 7.30am was ok. The sun was already out, but was yet to unleash its full wrath. The run to the halfway point of 4 miles was good but not as easy as last week.
Around the 5.5 mile mark, I had already finished my two bottles. The sun was glaring down now, unleashing all of it's 100 deg fury. And then a curious thing happened.
I started to feel cold... from the inside. The sun was shining bright and I was feeling cold enough to get goosebumps. It felt like somebody inside me had turned my body's thermostat way down. It was something unlike I had ever felt before. And I was not alone. My two running buddies felt it too.
Luckily the water stop was not too far off. We took a big break and had plenty of water and an energy gel. But that lasted only for about a mile. Still about 1.5 miles to go. I just could not keep running anymore. I had to start walking. It was the first time I had ever 'walked' on the runs, but it was the first time I had ever felt like this, and I was not prepared to risk it that much. I would walk, feel a little better, the run a little till I had to walk again.
After 8 miles we came back to the start, and I was ready to curl up and die. But here is where running buddies help. Training alone I would have surely given up at this point, but they called me out for another last mile which was again walk-run. At the end, I was more exhausted than I've ever been in my life.
Gathering some energy and senses, I asked coach what the cold feeling meant. It seems that when you sweat away all the water you have in you, the body cant cool itself with sweating anymore, so it turns the thermostat down. On days like this, it's important to carry all 4 bottles with you, drink water every so often, and re-fill the bottles at the next water stop.

A lesson learnt the hard way.