[WDT] ARBOR DAY [NSFW]

gotta double back just to be clear:

yes, there are deaths in marathons. One happened yesterday in Nashville R&R Marathon. It's gonna make headlines today. However, they are almost always the result of undiagnosed medical conditions (usually cardiac) exacerbated by the heightened and lengthy physical and mental stress of a marathon. Statistically, the rough estimates are that there are between 0.5-2 deaths per 100,000 marathon participants. Of course, that's as a direct result, like on course stuff, and does not include people who die later as a result of issues stemming from injuries gained during the race (blood clots would be a good example).

EVERY person knows the risks. On the back of the bib number, you put your emergency contact information, address, medications actively taken, etc. I even run with a Road ID bracelet. However, I've also had extensive bloodwork, chest, and heart testing as a result of past medical issues, long covid, and an ongoing interest in staying on top of my health. As with anything in life, there are things you can do to mitigate the risk. But you cannot live in a completely sterile environment and have fun. We tried that during covid. Everyone went insane.

 

Man, this flu fucked me up good. Been going on since Thursday before last, I've lost seven pounds, and I've got a bloody fluid coming out of my right ear.

 

You sure two people died? This guy collapsed, but he's already back to work. I found zero reporting about anyone dying at this year's London Marathon.

The weather at the start was sunny with temperatures in the mid-40s and fairly strong winds. The high for London that day was 52°. Heat injuries can occur at those temps, (see the guy above) but it wouldn't be rampant.

Also, last year's winner died in a car accident and was honored before the start. Are you sure you didn't miss hear what was said?

 

yeah there was a dude who passed away after going down in Blackfriars tunnel around mile 23. Also, while the temperatures in the area were relatively mild, course conditions were a bit different due to the light reflecting off the buildings, heat and humidity building up in the tunnels, etc. My watch recorded a high of 84F, which even given a generous margin of error, which garmin usually doesn't have, would still put it fairly high for those not used to it.

Regardless, I still had a blast even though I'm a bit of a gimp at the moment. Awaiting xray results to see if there is anything structural like broken bones. Doctor said he suspects some light tears based upon swelling and lack of mobility, but he's a runner as well and said I'm fine rehabbing it at home.

 

time to redneck engineer some shit

It's a general consensus around these parts, and also in my real life, that I should be wearing a helmet at all times. Accordingly, I just ordered a highly ventilated OSHA-approved hard hat. I also ordered a beer hat -- the novelty kind you can drink two beers out of. The idea is to marry the two for running purposes.

I'm going to attempt to harvest the plumbing and some of the drink holding features from the beer hat, marry them to the helmet via... I don't know what. Epoxy if nothing else works. Then I will attempt to attach the plumbing to some of my various water bottles until I hopefully find one that works (or drill through a cap to make it work). End goal is to be able to run a half marathon, wearing the rig, while sipping on electrolyte-infused water.

I give this a 35% chance of working like I imagine. At least I have the hard hat now though.

 

I thought you broke your foot not your head, or were they in close proximity?

 

no but I do have a long history of concussions after the brain tumor knocked out my balance

also the xrays were deemed "inconclusive" on the foot. Dr said no obvious fractures, but he couldn't rule it out since it was over a week post-injury and something small could have healed to the point where it wouldn't show up. Whatever. Regardless, there's still some decent soft tissue damage, as well as a high ankle sprain that's gonna be a bugger for a while.

I won't be pushing it hard for a while until it's fully healed, but imo there's some benefit to still running on it and getting the blood pumping and muscles working in there again. Did my first post-race little 3 miler today. Wasn't bad going in a straight line but taking turns showed a good bit of discomfort and instability. Got some strength training ahead.

 

no lies detected

 

I hope you like neck injuries.

There's a reason camelbak style hydration packs exist and other than for novelty, hydration helmets don't. That much weight on top of your noggin will at best be uncomfortable. More likely, you will give yourself a neck injury.

 

Nerds get an injury? NEVER!!!!!!!

 

this is a brilliant point and something I had not considered. I was going more for comedic effect than actual usefulness, though I wanted to at least take it to like a 5 or 10k to get some race pics for the laughs. If I can get it to work, I'm going to weigh it with water in the containers to see what type of risk I'm actually taking.

Also, I switched the hard hat to a bike helmet for ventilation and comfort purposes.

 

Red eye flights are a trip. It's almost 1pm where I'm at and we still need to run some errands, shower, pack, get dinner and yet tomorrow morning we'll be in NY. Hopefully a few drinks at the airport bar and a few on the plane will get me to sleep or tomorrow is going to draaaaaaaaag

 

I might consider any fluid out of my ear to be progress. Still dealing with muffled hearing on my left side. Audiology tests were inconclusive so the ENT didn’t want to rush into anything. If we approached it like actual bone issues and the procedure went sideways, I’d be totally deaf on one side. I don’t want that.
But when I pop my ears, I do feel some change in hearing, it just reverts back quickly. So I’m gonna hope it fades to normal eventually. Got a follow up in July.