Glad it wasn't my - Memorial Day

Well, I had kind of a crazy day yesterday. Some of you might have seen it on facebook already, but I ran the Stonebridge 1K with Dean and the 10K right after it. 

Dean did a great job. We started out with shoes and headphones, but the headphones kept falling off and his shoes were weighing him down. So half way through, we took off his shoes and headphones. He ran the whole thing and I was really proud of him even though it wasn't his fastest time because of the shoe and headphone situation.  He even sprinted in at the end. He was so excited to get a medal but kept asking what color it was. "Is this bronzen? Is this gold?"  And when he talked to my parents afterward, he said, "Yeah, I got a medal and I think it was like gold or something."  Right after that race, I fed Edward so he wouldn't be hungry while I was gone. And then I went to run and Matt and the kids went home.

I started out really strong, in the 7's and low 8's. About half way through I dropped to the 8:30's and started getting really hot.  At about that time I just kept thinking, "close the gap" between me and the front group.  I sped up a bit and caught someone in the back of the lead group.  With about.5 left I started getting fuzzy headed and a couple of people passed me.  It was all I could do to hold onto a 9 min/mi. I sprinted to the end with about 1/10 mi. left and felt really light headed. After I crossed the finish a couple of volunteers came over to help me because I looked like death heated over. I apparently passed out for a few seconds and I think they were pouring cold water on me. I threw up a couple times and then they called the ambulance.

When the ambulance got there, I initially resisted letting them do an IV or take me to the hospital because the last time Matt rode in an ambulance for his appendicitis, it cost us $800 because the ambulance was out of network. What a crock.  Anyway, I felt tired and hot but thought if I could just go home (one of my friends was at the finish line and said she'd take me home) and rest and drink some gatorade or something, that I'd be fine enough.  I didn't realize that they'd keep me so long (it was really only a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity) and ask so many questions. As they were asking questions, my left foot started cramping. They said it was from dehydration and I needed fluids to make it stop. I asked if I could have a drink and they said they didn't have anything except the IV.  The cramping started to move up into my leg and continued up the whole left side of my body. I started tapping right, left, right, left to keep my mind off of it and keep myself present.

When my lips started going numb, and I couldn't tap in rhythm anymore, I told them to take me to the hospital.  I was completely soaked head to toe. I was there a couple of hours while they gave me 2 bags of IV fluids and checked my vitals. My friend who was at the finish line followed me to the hospital and called Matt for me. He brought Edward up to eat (he'd cried himself to sleep when I wasn't there in time) and she went and watched the other two boys till we got home. She even did my dishes and folded some of my laundry!  I've done this distance since  having Edward so I wasn't worried about the race, but I don't think I've done it quite this fast and the places I've run had shade most of the way. There were no trees or shade or breeze, and it was fairly hot and humid (mid 80s I think). I actually got 2nd in my age category and finished in 53 min., (8:30 pace. A little slower than I wanted, but still a decent time.) 6 min. faster than my last 10K. I didn't properly hydrate before the race and I breastfed all night and twice that morning before my race.  They also said my blood sugar and potassium levels were low.

At the hospital I seriously had about 10 people ask if I liked my vibram 5 fingers, and one of the paramedics said he was going to get himself some. haha.  I also had people tell me stories about how someone died at the Dallas Rock N Roll two years ago at the finish line, and a girl here at a Stonebridge race was in a coma for 3 days. So, I'm glad I didn't die and/or go into a coma. That would be bad.

So, I probably won't run any more races while I'm breast feeding, and if I do, I'll be much better about hydrating and probably keep it to 5K or less. It was crazy, but I'm fine now. I slept from 8:30 pm - 6:30 with breast feeding interruptions.   Way more than a normal night's sleep for me.
  
I picked up my medal today. Too bad it's not real silver to help pay for the medical and ambulance bills...haha.