Challenge Penticton ITU LD Canadian Championship 2016

Finish line, the time in the clock is for
the Pro mens start, 25 minutes ahead.

So I did Challenge Penticton ITU LD Canadian Championships a few weeks ago, with interesting results.  Let me say going into this race, I was sufficiently tapered, and felt fairly fit, although I was experimenting with a trimmed down training schedule.  For example, I only did one long ride of 120k before this race.  I did do sufficient long swims in open water, with training partner Bruce, so that felt fine.


Swim 1:07:55

T1          6:06

Bike    4:06:39

T2           5:20

Run     3:20:40

Finish  8:46:40

Med Tent 2:00:00 ish

Comments on Swim:  Even splits, I was 33 minutes at the turn.  Swells made it a bit fun.  Don't breath while sighting.

Comments on Bike:  Scraped pedal on first turn onto highway.  Chill buddy, its a long race.  Averaged over 30kmh until second MacLean Creek climb.  Saying 'It Doesn't hurt' worked for as long I needed it to.

Comments on Run.  Was not uncomfortable with heat, needed to focus on the ground ahead, otherwise I spent too much time looking for friends going the other way.

The biggest part of the discussion will be about the Med Tent aftermath.

It was a warm day, temp peaked at about 30 degrees.  Fueling and hydration went well, but I took no where near enough electrolytes (only about 8 salt caps, the rest got wet and broke).  For the last few K, I had this weird feeling like I was running on someone elses legs.

After the race, my arms, shoulder to fingertips started tingling, and my tongue tingled and felt like it was swelling, and I was talking with a distinct lisp.  Ally Johnson got me over to the med tent, and first measure had my heart rate at 35, and BP something like 96/56 ( a wee bit low).  So I spent 2 hours wrapped in blankets, drinking as much chicken broth as I could stomach.   Eventually the tingling went away, I started talking somewhat normal.  The lisp kept coming back and going away, and it took until midnight before I was anywhere close to being properly hydrated.

From what I understand now, this is signs of hyponatremia.  The exact definition is as follows:  Normal serum sodium levels are 135 - 145 mEq/liter (135 - 145 mmol/L), mine was 146 the last time my doctor checked it. Hyponatremia is generally defined as a serum sodium level of less than 135 mEq/L and is considered severe when the level is below 120 mEq/L.

Most interesting is that I found paresthesia of the arms and tongue to be symptoms of low electrolytes or low sodium, but paresthesia is not listed as a sign of hyponatremia.  This could be because they really only list the severe symptoms, coma and death being among them.  I have had this happen before, but not combined.  After the Berlin Marathon, in which I ran the last 10k for the first time, only my arms tingled for around 30 minutes after the race.  After all my marathons in the past few years, I have had the tongue tingle/lisp thing going on.   I had always assumed that this was simply dehydration.

It makes sense in this race, in that I trained for heat, and did heat acclimatization in the steam room, building up to 15 minutes at a time, twice a week.  I sweat more quickly and with more volume, which I wanted to stay cool in the heat.   I have always lost a lot of salt in my sweat.  So not taking any salt or electrolytes for the majority of the run would get me low on electrolytes.  I also continued with the same hydration plan after my salt caps broke.  The proper thing to do would have been to drink much less, use the Ph.D drink they were serving, and allow myself to get dehydrated.