The Last Marathon

This weekend I finally got my opportunity to run the much anticipated St. George Marathon. After the three hours of sleep I got, I was surprisingly awake getting ready that morning. Unfortunately, I left my water and gatorade in the fridge in the hotel. Not sure if it was a contributing factor to later events, but I think it might have been. After the wonderful bus ride up to the top, I waited with my friend Colleen's husband for the race to start. It was really cold. It was kind of nice that they had a bunch of fires up there that most people who weren't standing in line for porta potties were huddled around.
For the first three miles of the race, I did really well. At least I was happy with how it was going. I was at 3 miles at 29 minutes. Next time I actually paid attention to my time was at mile 15. By then I was three hours into the race with no hope of finishing in the 4:30 I hoped for. Somewhere in the upper single digits, my chest started burning and it was really hard to breathe. I stopped and walked for a while. But every time I started running again, but chest burned more. This really upset me because I felt like I had trained really well, and I could continue running if it weren't for the burning. I figured I had caught the cold Scott had. Sad. I ended up walking most of the second half of the race, and finished in 5:56:45. So depressing. I felt awful. Towards the end of the race there were a couple of misting stations. Every time I went under one, I gasped and it hurt BAD.
After I finished the race, I sat down with Scott. I was tired. When I tried to get up, I got really dizzy and I had to sit back down. I can't really describe how I felt. I felt weak, nauseous, dizzy, and hot. Once I finally got enough energy to move, we started walking to the car, but because there was so many people, Scott had to park a little ways away. I couldn't even make it to the car. I laid down on the grass and Scott went to get the car. A couple of girls walked by and asked if I was ok, and offered me some ice cream. I took it (it was ice cream from the marathon, they weren't just weird people). The ice cream made me feel worse. Scott came and got me and I thought I was going to throw up twice before we got to the hotel, but thankfully, I didn't. I didn't that is, until we got to the hotel parking lot. I knew I couldn't make it to the room, so I sat down on the curb. Then began the vomiting. Over and over. I laid down on the curb with my head in the gutter, pleasant huh? I asked Scott to go get my gatorade, water and crackers from the room. He brought it down and everything I ate or drank, came right back up. It was awful.
After I was laid on the curb for 30 to 45 minutes, some lady came and asked if I was ok. I told her I was sick, and somehow she determined I was sicker than I said. She and her husband helped me inside (I threw up on the way). She got a bunch of towels and water and put them all over my body. I was little uncomfortable to have some random lady lifting up my shirt to put towel on my stomach, but I was feeling so awful, it didn't really matter. She said I was really hot. My body was burning up. It was so hot, I kept warming up the towels. She tried to get me to drink some water, but it kept coming right back up. Eventually she told me that she wasn't comfortable with how I was doing and asked the hotel to call an ambulance. They came out and gave me an IV and oxygen. Eventually they determined that I needed to go to the hospital to get completely checked out.
By the time I got to the hospital, I was feeling much better. Just getting water and oxygen into me really helped. At the hospital they gave me a breathing treatment for asthma, some zofran for the nausea and took some blood to test. I was there for a couple of hours and they determined I was ok to go. They discharged me with heat exhaustion and told me that I need to be super careful from now on because now that I have had heat exhaustion, it is easier for me to get it again. Heat exhaustion turns into heat stroke, and you can die from heat stroke. I was told I can never do a marathon again. Which was my plan already, but I was hoping to go out with a bang. Well, I did go out with a bang, but not the type I was hoping for. I was hoping to do better on this marathon than the other two I had done. Oh well I guess, I can't control what happens to me in life. I can still do half marathons. I am happy about that. Anyway, for anyone who is wondering, I am doing much better. I am still a little weak and I get tired if I do too much, but I am functioning, and I am feeling good. I am happy that nothing was worse than it was. Oh, and I am really excited to get the bill!