eighteen kilometers and two hours to the 160 kilometer finish line. that was all that separated me from completing my first 100-miler. having read other runner’s dnf’s(did not finish) with about 5 miles to go after an all-night effort had me asking “why?”. now i know why and better.
things began to unravel at around 6am, february 27 somewhere between bamban and capas , tarlac along macarthur highway. at this point, i was walking for the past 7 hours from km 102 alternately with charlie chua and camilla brooks, my pacers. nicko nolasco, a 2-time bdm 102 finisher was also part of my support team headed by my wife.
after taking a short, uneventful stop at a roadside eatery’s comfort room, i came out and noticed my tummy bulging like i have never seen before. it was well-rounded. this as i kept looking at my hands for any signs of swelling.it was, kinda.i felt strangely weak than refreshed after the break.at the walking pace i was doing, i felt the battle to finish 160 slowly slipping away with about 30k to go and barely 5 hours to boot. to make matters worse, the blisters on my left foot was becoming unbearable that when doc art virata(thank you) overtook me, i did not hesitate when he offered his crew to rid me of my blisters. there i sat and forced myself to take a quick nap while the crew worked on my foot.
it was done and ever so slowly, i resumed my walk.
capas town proper loomed and there were the golden arches at the junction. 3 hours to 160. after pointing to my crew to grab some breakfast, i took a seat(i even barely remember this) and rested by the roadside. sun was slowly heating up. i crossed macarthur highway with camilla on my way to o’donnel but i was getting weaker every step. i remember that i kept raising my hands to look at them but i couldn’t make a thing out of it. camilla was gently stroking my back, urging me on. she said that once in a while i would laugh at her jokes but that was all i could muster. i was a man of few words,very few, alright one word, for a change.i remember haide acuna running past me after calling me out. she was the last runner who overtook me.
the majority of finishers started overtaking me in angeles city but not after jael and cookie wenceslao went past me galloping mightily between san fernando and angeles earlier in the morning. did i envy those strides, man. from then on, km 102 onwards, one by one, fellow competitors overtook me. i wanted to keep up but something was pulling me down.it was all downhill from here.
in the last half kilometer of my race, i stopped a total of three times. i do not recall the 1st two stops but i certainly remember the last one. with my shoulders down and with my wife, charlie, nicko and jujet de asis around me and urging me to give up, i faintly said yes. all i could say was “antok” when they asked me how i felt.my wife earlier noticed how my legs appeared to be so bloated, my lips so red and hands so swollen.that was when she started to make a judgment call.now i know what it means when they say, the wife knows best.
to the credit of all my support crew, no one ever told me to stop. it was only during the last sit that we all threw the towel in. had i pursued on, i would have been good at best for a mere 10 meters more and fell dead.
much of what happened next, i gathered after i asked everyone who was with me from the start. i cannot recall much on my own.
next thing i knew, i was seated in my vehicle and asking why i had to be brought to the hospital.in my mind, all i was craving for was a bed to sleep on. i continued muttering senseless words then it was the sight of a stretcher and wheelchair that greeted me. by this time my sister in law who is a doctor was on her way from baguio to attend to me.my vital signs were taken and i was asked some questions which i could only answer with a smile but still correctly. i knew the doctors were trying to test my level of awareness or something like that.i had an ecg test but i kept removing the wires attached to me, not intentionally of course. why, i even got up, nearly took a leak at a plant box inside the er and proceeded to the bathroom even if it had occupants inside. i was losing it.
the lack of facilities prompted my wife to look for another medical facility and concepcion, tarlac was it. this episode, the 2nd hospital stop, i barely remember. all i recall is that why was it taking so long for me to get home and the questions from doctors never seemed to end. inside the ambulance, my face was having involuntary contortions and both feet and hands started to have minds of their own. my eyes were wide open but i felt i was sleeping. for the next 2 hours, i was unresponsive to anyone. not even to my crew who visited me. in one rare instance i was aware, i could not even recall nicko’s name while he was infront of me.
next thing i knew i was in another ambulance on the way to mt carmel hospital in san fernando,pampanga. my sister in law saw it fit and better for me to be transferred. they wanted a ct scan on me as ecg tests showed i was having transient ischemic attack or on the verge of a stroke.my brain and heart were lacking oxygen at some point. my blood became so thick, my heart was working double time to pump blood.
i finally settled in my hospital bed at around 430pm but not after what appeared to be a series of tests on me, ct scan, blood tests, ecg, etc. it was my first time to have oxygen tubes attached to my nostrils and i had iv fluids on my arm too.
the first flow of visitors, my kids,relatives, nieces and nephews started streaming in but i was too tired to talk. i could make out who was who but after about 30 minutes, i was finally sleeping soundly. that meant being awake for 37 1/2 straight hours since 3am of saturday.
i woke up closed to midnight and asked for my cellphone and saw all the messages from sir jovie, my friends and relatives. i answered back later in the morning. i struggled to get to my feet with all the wires and took a shower. funny, but i felt no pain in my legs and muscles. guess, my training was alright. so i had to find answers for my ordeal.
came the doctor and she updated us of what happened. i had electrolyte imbalance. i was cleared to check out only to find out around noontime that a radiologist suspected a hemorrhage in my ct scan result. so a medical conference among neurologists and my doctor was called. they ruled out the initial findings but recommended a second opinion in manila. all cleared to go home.
i was still feeling weak that night on the drive back home and never felt so sleepy,drained and tired.
the next 2 or 3 mornings was an ordeal. it would take me a few seconds to gather my thoughts before i could answer a simple question or two. but at least, all my answers were correct. and i made sure i was texting back all my well-wishers to keep my brain alive and kicking. the matter of brain damage lingered on so we went to a neurologist who thought i was good based on the ct scan result after all.
i started to go back and retrace my nutrition plan and soon found out the culprit. too much sodium/electrolyte intake which resulted in a condition called hypernatremia. what happened was that i kept taking sodium/electrolyte supplements in the same dosage starting at 6pm saturday at 2 capsules per hour just like what i was doing from 5am onwards. and yet from 6pm onwards(80 kilometers or so), i wasn’t sweating that much, weather was cooler and my pace was much slower. in fact, i was walking from km 102 onwards.so the level of my physical exertion and sweat excretion was much lower than during the daytime.
the difficult thing about my condition is that i had an excess of sodium and water and it had to be flushed out yet doing and balancing my readings were to be a chore just the same. hyponatremia or the opposite is somewhat less complicated as this condition calls for one to have fluids injected as opposed to my condition.
while i was able to still regularly urinate from 102 to around 135 every 20 minutes, i did not pee for about 2 hours after until i was given diuretics in the hospital which had me unload liters at a time. i understand this was to flushed out the excess sodium that by then accumulated in my body and started retaining all the water i was drinking. my lower legs had red patches which indicated massing of water in those areas wanting for exit points and that water was looking for spaces between my cells which made me bloated all the more. as my doctor put it, it was as if i was drowning in salt water.
as i start to realize the folly of it all, i should have reduce my sodium/electrolyte intake by the time the sun set in and started to slow down. my walking from 102 onwards was pretty “normal” activity that did not require special doses of sodium/electrolyte supplements from that point on.
still and all, remember that each runner is unique and truly an experiment of one. another mortal sin i did was to try something new on race day. i did a new brand of supplements so there you go.listen to your body.
it did not disappoint me that i did not finish however close i was to the finish. perhaps, it’s because of the reality that dnf’s are part of a runner’s experience and i am but human after all. but i feel sorry for all my crew’s efforts because these went for naught. i am sorry , i put you down guys.what scares me is the fact that i have come so close to meeting my Maker if not for the timely judgments of my wife. i will never be able to thank my wife and crew enough but i want you to know that i owe you my life.
truly, a crew is as much part of a runner’s success in a race of this distance.
throughout my ordeal, my being relatively fit as a runner helped me pull through. if only for this reason, i shall never cease to become one. running rocks! but i am not itching to get a 100-miler under my belt soon, not even a 5k run.i am just happy to be alive.
it is very heartwarming to see many friends sending their well-wishes. so once again, let me take this opportunity to thank all of you out there who took time out from your own pains just to send me a get well yell. from the bottom of my heart and soles, thank you very much. God bless you all.
i will unabashedly admit to you that i cried on two instances; i first did on tuesday morning when a steady stream of messages from friends were coming in and i was just so touched. and yesterday, monday, march 7, when the ungo group of cebu sent me a personalized get-well card signed by the members.
i am truly blessed with good friends.and as i said, God is ultra good.
eighteen kilometers in two hours on any given day is, modesty aside, peanuts. but not on february 27, 2011. sometimes you win, sometimes(and rarely, i hope), you lose.
majority of the things that transpired from kilometer 142 onwards, i do not remember but with utmost certainty, i will not forget the hard lessons learned.
FRONTRUNNER Philippines 
