Did I Bonk?

Yesterday was the last long run before the L.A Marathon on March 2, 2008. The run with the Leggers was 13 miles and I figured I would run home afterwards for a total of 23 miles.

  

The first 13 with the Leggers was no problem. When the Leggers finished, I did stop to go to the bathroom and fill up my water bottles, about a five minute break. But when I started running again, things were a little different.  For one thing, I was very thirsty and started drinking a lot of water. I was also a lot more tired. Running back to West Hollywood from Santa Monica, I had to wait at a lot of traffic lights. It didn't seem like rest time, but like my energy was being drained every time I had to stop. I did have a gel at about 15 total miles, but I was soon out of water. I knew there was a water fountain coming up in a mile or two, but the run was getting increasingly harder and my pace increasingly slower. 

Finally at about 19 miles, my legs just started cramping like I had never experienced.  I knew the problem, because I have heard it discussed: lack of electrolyte intake. I finished my Accelerade about 5 miles in on my run with the Leggers and had been taking a lot of water since then.  The cakes of white all over my black running tights proved that I had lost a lot of salt and I hadn't replenished any for 12 miles. There was a 7-11 up the road about a quarter of a mile and so I went in and got a Big Gulp of Gatorade. It felt great to drink it what I could and I replenished my water bottles with it, but the damaged had been done.

  

I managed to painfully run for about another half-mile, but eventually I just decided to walk. The whole 23 miles took almost five hours. I did, however, learn a valuable lesson: proper nutritional intake.

 

Did I bonk? I still don't know. I think of bonking as being deprived nutrients so that one's energy level is so low that you can't go on. I could have continued to run, but it was the pain of the cramps that was stopping me.  I suppose it doesn't really matter, the bottom line was that I was unable to finish the entire 23 miles without walking a significant portion.  But I also finished the 23 miles, so that is something.  At the L.A. Marathon there will be Gatorade stations at every mile.  I will also bring salt tablets and make sure to eat at least every hour.

  

John Thum