Ok Did I almost Die yesterday? (Graphic!)

Triathlon Forum
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I did Racine, If you hadn’t heard it was hot…really hot, asphalt melting hot. However it wasn’t the race that almost killed me, well at least I don’t think so.

Finished the race feeling the usual “Queezy” and not so good. Took in various fluids and jumped in the lake. Felt good and even started getting hungry.

A group of us went and ate, again everything good, no quessiness upset stomache or anything. Drove home about 1 1/2-2 hrs felt fine, and was hungry again by the time I got home. Fairly typical for me after long workouts or long races.

Had a small snack and of course consumed various fluids through the whole time after the race…went to bed, feeling fine, full and a little soar. Slept fine.

Along about 3-3:30 AM I wake up with stomache cramps but not to bad. Head to rest room and weigh myself out of curiousity, I’m around 1.5-2% below prerace weight, not to bad I thought…but that’s when all hell broke loose.

The first round was your typical “I didn’t know my intestines could hold that much stuff”, projectile diareahea. This was followed by the same type of “All over body sweat” that occurs the second you get off your bike on a very hot day when you go from just hot to dripping and hot. However I was litterally dripping on the bathroom floor in an airconditioned room. Dizzyness, quezy etc.

Not sure what to do I weigh myself, only lost a couple of pounds, not thinking the situation is still all that bad I head back to bead…thankfully I fall asleep.

Again around 4:30 wake up same thing. However this time the scenario is accomapanied by similar projectile vomiting.

At this point I’m in one of those situations where you feel you should just jump in the tub and turn the water on because fluids are coming faster and more intensely than you can direct. Things are not looking good.

I claw my way to the kitchen and mix up a bottle of sports drink, then weigh myself. I’m 5-6% under pre race weight. Not good but still not “extremely” dangerous…I head to bed.

First thing in the AM I call a friend that is a flighty nurse and also did the race. He mentions that it could be any number of things but is kinda putting his money on a nastly local flu going around. His suggesting was to continue to drink, but if for some reason I can’t keep the fluids down head to the ER.

Luckily so far, 6-7 hours later the fluids have stayed down and other than still being very dehydrated I feel at least human.

If you’ve gotten this far my question is, Does this sound more like a “nutrition”, dehydration, electrolyte etc error, or “you’re just unlucky to get sick after a race” thing.

I figure I had plenty of opportunity for either to happen?

Anyone else get sick?

~Matt

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“A group of us went and ate, again everything good, no quessiness upset stomache or anything.”

Food Poisoning? Where and what did you eat after the race?

Chris

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Matt…no, you are just racing like some of the other Rockford area natives. If you dont end up in the medical tent or ER, you arent racing - right?

I cant say that I have ever done that bad, but have had issues with the GI after super hot days - and WAY to much sugar intake.

Hope you fel better fast and are out on Wed…oh, and no, you didnt almost die.

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I was just eating my lunch when I read the words in your post “projectile diareahea”.

Thanks.

(I know you did warn me in the subject line that it was graphic)

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Oh, and getting sick on the course, or post meal is not that unheard of…imagine if you will a person in the race stops at the porto potty…notice, no sink nor soap for post poopie hand washing…add to that the possiblilty of no TP in the porto…you know where I am going from there…well, that person then touches the hand of a nice cute vouleneer, who then pours your cup of nice cold water…

Next thing you know you are playing Apolo 11 on the shitter with the booster rocket vomit teaching you a lesson about germs…

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You’re not having fun unless you’re puking.

Anyway, sounds heat related. Sometimes it takes a few hours to really get a hold of your body.

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Food Poisoning: happened to me on over the 4th. lost about 5 lbs in 2 days. Took 48 hours to get it out of my system, 24 hour rest, then a 100k

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DEFINITELY sounds like food poisioning. E. coli or salmonella, maybe.

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Yep, I did the race too. What a sufferfest. 69% completion rate between DNS and DNF. Oh, and you forgot to mention the winds, 20 gusting to 29.

You might have picked up some bug on the course. Could have been the lake water. There is e-coli in the water from the birds.

On the race course, there is a lot of handling of the ice and water in not too sanitary ways. I’m not slamming the volunteers, I’ve worked water stops too and that’s the way it is. I was carrying a water bottle and fished ice out of pans that people just had their hands in.

With the extreme stress the race put on your body, it is probably pretty easy to pick something up.

I’m still beat today.

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Had the same thing a few months ago. Sudden diahrea, followed closely by uncontrolled vomiting. Couldn’t keep anything down for about 12 hours. Finally could keep weak fluids down, and about 24 hours later I could eat real food. Took about 5 days to feel somewhat normal, and another couple days to regain training strength.

Not saying that’s what you’re going through, but it soulds the same. I thought food poisoning, while others thought flu. Still don’t know for sure.

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Well it’s been narrowed down to Food, water or just a bug. Wife had to pick up “Mini-Me” earlier from the baby sitters after he stained their carpet with some pukeage.

I was pretty sure it wasn’t “Race day or heat related” as I pretty much shut it down on the run. To freakin’ hot and didn’t want to spend a week recoverying…so much for that plan.

Have been in a prone position since the original post…looks like I’ll live.

~Matt

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Food poisoning, simple as that. A local bug ended up in something you ate. Or it could even be you put your hand somewhere where the bug happened to be and it ended up in your stomach. Maybe the day before or just before or during the race, or even just after … You were just unlucky. I’m hard sure exercise (which can depress immunity) didn’t help … Happened to me in Guatemala. Something I ate from a street vendor. I couldn’t keep down water for the first 24 hours, but eventually I got some water and gatorade to stay down. I felt so awful that when I finally felt better (48 hours later) I felt like a million bucks.

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Food poisoning is definitely a possibility. Given the rapid abatement (relatively speaking) and the time of onset relative to your last meal, it could have been salmonella or possibly staph (usually onset 6-8 hours after eating and tends to go away quicker than), or you could have swallowed a bunch of vibrio in whatever water hole you were racing in (cousin to cholera).

OTOH, if you were dehydrated and racing hard, you could have developed a relative mild gut ischemia from trying to keep cool as well as shunt oxygen to muscles, which would then affect your ability to absorb anything in your gut. Eventually it couldn’t deal with the load and just expelled everything.

Either way, sounds really really pleasant. Glad you’re better

Doom

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Didn’t happen if fyou don’t have pictures…