Trip Report
Australia
8/26 – 9/2/98
Noosa Marathon
Noosa Heads, AustraliaSun, Aug 30/09
Marathon # 130 – Country # 9 – Continent # 7
4:12:46
Fortunately Nicole was able to schedule ‘work’ meetings
in Sydney the week after the race so we departed early for Brisbane. After
arriving in Brisbane we rented a car and drove south along the Gold Coast to
spend a few days in Surfer’s Paradise to acclimate and recover from jetlag. On
Sat we headed north along the Gold Coast to Noosa Heads near Sunshine Beach on
the Sunshine Coast.
I picked up my race packet on Sat and checked out the
course. It was hilly but didn’t look too bad? The weather was HOT and humid as
expected but it didn’t really matter. I had been struggling badly in training
and races for the past four months and didn’t expect to run well? I had no
injuries but I was struggling with fatigue and could barely break four hours in
a marathon?
Sadly this race turned out as predicted. I reached 10 Km
in 52:44 and a (5K) split of 16:13. When I reached 25 Km in 2:22:42 and a split
of 6:43 I was totally fatigued and struggled to reach 30Km in 2:53:20 and a
(5K) split of 19.01 where I hit the ‘wall’! I was finished! I had nothing left
and struggled courageously (mostly walking) to cross the finish line in 4:12:46
– a PW (Personal Worst) for a marathon! I had completed marathon # 130 –Country
# 9 and most importantly Continent # 7 but it was not a memorable way to
accomplish such a significant goal!
After the race we drove back to Brisbane and flew on to
Sydney so Nicole could attend her meetings while I played tourist and
re-visited many of the sites in Sydney. Syndey is such a beautiful city with
its spectacular Opera House, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and the topless
beauties on Bondi beach! In the evening we enjoyed visiting the Quay and Rocks
for drinks and dinner.
But I was eager to get back home to visit my GP and other
doctors to see if they could find out “what was wrong with me”? I underwent
many, many tests over the next few weeks including every blood test known to
mankind – and Nada – nothing! The docs could not find any problem to explain my
symptoms of fatigue? Their only advice was ‘to stop running and rest”! That
advice was not acceptable to Maddog!
One month later I tried to run a marathon in East Lyme,
CT. I started suffering fatigue at 10
miles and at 18 miles I became so dizzy and disoriented that I had to sit down
on the road and cry because my body shut down and I could not move? I thought I
had suffered a heart attack? Somehow I managed to get up and finish the race in
a new PW. And I knew that I had a serious medical problem.
This time I contacted the Baylor Sports Clinic at the
Baylor University Hospital in Dallas. They were renowned for working with pro
and elite athletes to help them rehab and improve their performances. I was
assigned a team of medical staff to work on my case. They reviewed all the
medical tests that I had undergone in the past month. They reviewed my
training/racing logs for the past three years. And they conducted their own
battery of tests including two intensive sessions on a treadmill where I was
connected to an EKG, breathing apparatus that looked like scuba gear and had IVs
in my arms and legs so they could draw blood and muscle tissue while I was
exercising on the treadmill. They tested and measured all the parameters of an
endurance athlete.
When the tests were completed the team requested (advised?)
that I take some time off from running and rest while they analyzed the data. That
advice was still not acceptable to Maddog!
