You may have read the interview Dev Paul did with me on the ST homepage. Today I started in the Toronto Goodlife Marathon. The result was a stark reminder of the fact that I still am not fully healed and that the road to full health is long and unpredictable.
As I mention in the article, I suffer from epileptic seizures. While they are not fully controlled yet, things are getting better, and more importantly, I’ve never had any episodes while running. Until today, causing me my first DNF in my “illustrious” career.
The first third to half of the race was unremarkable, except for the fact that like a true marathon rookie I went out to fast. My goal was 3:15, which translates to 4:36/km (7:25/mi), and the first 8km (5mi) or so I did between 4:20 and 4:25 (7:00/mi). Pretty stupid. I started paying the interest for that between 10km and the halfway mark, which I reached at 1h 38. At that point I realized I wasn’t going to negative split and so I reset my goal to 3:20 and comfortable 4:40-4:45 kms (7:35/mi). That went well until km 27 (mile 17) or so. At that point the course reaches the finish area, which is on Toronto’s lakefront, the city’s main recreation area.
There were a ton of people there, people cheering, announcers announcing, music blaring, etc, etc. After passing the finish area there’s a 14km out-and-back along the lake, on a busy multi-function trail. When I hit the trail I noticed that my pace had dropped to 5:15 (8:25/mi). Over the next couple of kms the craziness increased, with rollerbladers swerving between racers, cyclists coming up from behind and up ahead, and bands playing every km or so. My pace kept dropping to about 5:30 (8:50/mi). At km 31.5 (mile 19.5) I suddenly just stopped. I didn’t consciously decide to stop, but my body just stopped. I felt some shit stirring in my brain, but did some breathing exercises and walked for maybe 200m. I felt better, the fuzziness in my brain seemed to have passed, and I started running again. About 1km later however, I saw some volunteers, and again unconsciously, I ran up to them, pointed to my bracelet which indicates I’m an epilepsy patient, and told them stuttering I needed first aid. I collapsed onto the ground and seized.
The volunteers at that point turned out to be a group of 15 year olds, one of whom had taken his first first aid course last month. He took charge, and that was good. Seeing somebody seize is a scary experience I hear (never seen it myself), but the guy handled it well. His friends at first thought I was suffering from heatstroke and started bringing water and Gatorade etc, and when they realized it wasn’t that they wanted to call 911 (which I declined, since it serves no purpose). A police officer showed up, ordered me to sit in the shade, and left. I seized again. In the meanwhile we were waiting for a ‘medi-van’, vans staffed by registered nurses patrolling the course. One of them finally showed up, but after taking me on board was ordered all over the course to collect people. I seized again. When they were finally at capacity, we made our way to the finish area and the med tent. Initially they could only get to a road separated from the med tent by a fence, and all other occupants fled the van at that point. I wasn’t allowed to. The race’s medical services coordinator had to come out and tell the security people that no, this was not an EMS vehicle but yes, it had to go to the med tent. There a doctor assessed me, I surprised him by declining the IV, and I was allowed to leave after they determined that my temperature was not elevated and my blood pressure was normal. I found my wife about an hour and ten minutes after she was first called.
Thinking back I think that my brain told me when I got to the waterfront park that I could either stress it by running hard, or by dealing with all the distracting nonsense. Since the nonsense wasn’t going away it stopped me from running hard, and when I kept overloading my sensory system it sent me into seizure. I don’t think my fitness was the issue; the 4:45s were comfortable before, and now, back home, I feel I ran quite hard today but I’m not trashed. This was clearly a neurological event.
The conclusion I’m drawing now is twofold. One is that marathons, or generally events over say 2 hours in length, are to taxing for my brain. Second is that I should stay away from huge events with lots of stuff going on. I think I’m going to concentrate the rest of the season on getting my 10km under 40, and maybe next year, if I feel like it, see how my brain deals with longer stuff with training for the Waterloo Marathon here in town. This is a very low-key event ran on the roads I train on.
One last shout-out to the volunteers and medical staff at the Toronto Goodlife Marathon today. While things maybe could have gone smoother, everybody did their utmost to get me back to safety as soon as possible. Thanks guys.
I also didn’t have any of the other symptoms, and I drank gatorade pretty diligently.