I put together a solid training plan for the Sulphur Springs 50km trail race and did a good job following it. I was in good shape, my running felt strong and I was consistently building up distance with my long runs. I was very self-confident, in fact, I was cocky. I thought 50km was going to be a breeze since I ran 80km a few months earlier. It was the Spring of 2016 and I was training mainly in the morning while it was cool. Sulphur was on the last weekend of May and I was expecting cooler temperatures but I couldn’t have been more wrong.
I met my friends Chris and Joe at the race site, the Dundas Valley conservation area the day before the race. I worked a full day and then rushed over to the race just before dark. I got a decent sleep but I didn’t feel well rested when I woke up early the next day. Chris and Joe were drinking a lot of water but I wasn’t drinking very much because I didn’t think that I would be on the course very long. I went to watch Chris and Joe start their races, Chris was running the 50 miler and Joe was running the 100 miler. There was a lot of energy as Chris and Joe left and I felt a pang of regret that I wasn’t running with them.
My race started an hour later and I was off running fast, close to my road marathon pace. I sped around the course for the first four hours while the weather was cool. I slowed down in a big way at the four and a half hour mark as the heat rose to a steamy 34°C. I wasn’t doing a good job with hydration – I was taking gels but wasn’t drinking enough water or getting enough electrolytes. Salt pills would have helped but I didn’t know enough to take them. I was sweating like crazy and I remember wringing huge amounts of sweat from my shirt. I was in really bad shape at 5 hours and could barely do a light jog. I stepped off the trail for a pee break and was shocked to see blood in my urine. I considered calling the race emergency number for help but I was only 6km from the finish. I decided to hike the rest of the distance and I worried the whole time that I had seriously damaged my kidneys.
I trudged through the finish line and got a nice round of applause but I felt terrible. I immediately walked over to the paramedic who was a young, friendly guy.
“I’m peeing blood. Am I going to die?” I asked
“Can you produce some of this bloody piss for me?” said the paramedic.
I thought that this was a strange question but I cooperated. I got a paper cup, walked to a porta-potty and then came back with my bloody urine. The paramedic confirmed that it was bloody urine and told me that I could not go back on the course. I told him not to worry because I was finished. The paramedic then asked me if I had any pain in my kidneys and asked me to turn around as he started to poke my kidneys. It was at this point that I realized that I might not be working with the brightest paramedic. He gave me a small punch in one of my kidneys to see if it was painful. Fortunately my kidneys weren’t sore to the touch and the paramedic ended our chat by telling me that I should go to the Emergency Room.
I didn’t want to wait all day at the Emergency Room so I called my wife who is a Family Doctor. I couldn’t get through to my wife so I called my sister who is also a Family Doctor. My sister promptly told me that my races are crazy but assured me that I wasn’t going to die. She told me to stop and get a big bottle of water and some chips for the salt. I got in my car and stopped at the first gas station on my route. I picked up a two litre bottle of water and a large bag of chips and promptly consumed all of it. I got home about 45 minutes later and was very relieved to see that my urine was back to normal.
I also called my brother in law who is a kidney transplant surgeon. He lives in Ottawa and saw a runner who was peeing blood after the Ottawa marathon. This runner went into kidney failure shortly after the run and suffered some serious health consequences. This story scared the life out of me and my previous excitement for ultra running was replaced with a deep fear. This was the biggest low that I have experienced in ultra running and I didn’t know if I would ever attempt another ultra marathon. I loved running and pushing myself but I certainly didn’t want to do any lasting, serious damage to my body. Getting hurt while running ultras seemed like a silly reason for not being able to support my family.
It was very tough for me to attempt another ultra-marathon after Sulphur – I had to overcome a serious fear of injury. After some reflection, I decided to view the Sulphur race as a temporary setback. This mindset helped me slowly overcome my fear and get back to running ultras. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I learned some valuable lessons at Sulphur that I now apply to all of my races. I learned that I had to be very careful with my hydration and nutrition planning. I learned to look for signs of dehydration and to act quickly to make it better. There are invaluable lessons with defeat, even though it might not seem like it at the time. It’s important to view defeat as a learning opportunity – a temporary setback instead of permanent road block.
