I ran the CU time trial this morning. It was a cold and wet morning, perfect for running. Saying that I was stressed would be an understatement, so when the gun went off, I immediately jumped to the top with the CU runners. I was surprised, because I expected them to be going quite a bit faster. One other runner attempted to take an early lead, but it was to no avail. I stuck with the CU runners with ease for the first two miles, and then it happened. I felt as if my vision were narrowing, and my legs truned to spaghetti. This feeling progressed until I had to almost hold my head up with my hands so that I could look forward. My pace slowly dwindled from a 5:20 mile something much slower. At that point, however, I was becoming delirious and lost any real thought process. It was more of catching myself when I was about to fall rather than really running. I probably gave up a good 20 positions after the ordeal began. With about 3/4 of a mile to go I approached a steep hill. It was not particularly long, but it was intense. People on the side must have been laughing at me because it took me a solid mintue to scale it. The main problem was that my balance was very messed up, so I swayed from side to side, trying desperately not to fall. I finally came across the finish line, not knowing what time I had received (I looked at my watch but I was far too delirious to comprehend what my time really was). Luckily, my parent were there, and seeing that I was in terrible shape, drove me to the hospital. On the way, I puked three or four times and felt terrible. At the hospital they hooked me up to an IV and layed me down. They monitored my heart rate and blood oxygen level. They also took blood samples to test for a lack of electrolytes and low blood sugar. Slowly but surely, I regained "consciousness" and began to feel a bit better. After an hour and a half, they released me. The blood tests showed that I was not lacking electrlytes, but my blood sugar level was high (265), suprisingly. They told me that the stress is probably what did me in, and that this is a fairly common occurence for serious runners. I felt like I ate a lot of carbohydrates and comsumed plenty of electrolytes the day before, so it seemed weird that something like this would happen. I know that the tempo is not what got to me either because I am used to running this fast with no previous problems. What especially agitated me was that the winning time was 26:55, which I know I could have beat, had my body not "shut down". I am going to talk to the CU coach and see if I can prove myself another time, because today was obviously not the "true" me. What feels the worst is knowing that my time was a false representation of my ability. I am happy, however, to be ok and well. I feel a bit tired, but I plan on resting for the rest of the day to regain strength. | 