One really bad run

This morning, I had a half marathon through Rock Creek Park. Yeah, didn't go so well.

We had been having all sorts of fall weather lately--perfect running weather--but we weren't so lucky this morning. On top of that, I took the first part of the run out too quickly, and the result was that by mile eight, I was feeling pretty much done. However, after a marathon, at least ten half marathons, and a smattering of races of other lengths, I've never not finished a race, so I kept going. I walked a lot, but kept going. I kept thinking that I should stop, but figured it was a mind-over-matter type of thing. And besides, I've never not finished a race.

And then I passed out a little after the tenth mile.

I don't really remember what happened after that, because the next thing I knew, I was surrounded by paramedics who kept asking me my name and what happened (and all I could tell them was, I passed out), and they decided that I needed to go to the emergency room, which since I couldn't stand, I agreed with. I told them probably five or six times that they had to take me to either NNMC or Walter Reed since I'm active duty (NNMC was only about a mile away), but they kept trying to talk me into a civilian hospital that was closer. I finally convinced them, mostly because the last thing I needed on top of everything else was to get an ER bill and trying to get TriCare to pay for it when a military medical treatment facility was only a mile away.

I also got to discover just how it feels to have altered level of consciousness (when the nurses in the ER asked how I felt, I said "altered". They looked at me funny until I informed them that I was an intern). Things felt funny and looked funny and kinda felt like an out-of-body experience. When they asked me my name and social and birthday, I had to seriously think about it before I came up with the answers. Then they asked me where I was, and I said "Navy," which wasn't good enough for the nurses (I don't think they know that that's what Army doctors call NNMC; they made me tell them that it was National Naval Medical Center, which again, took me a minute to come up with). And then they asked the date (which I didn't know), the day of the week (which I knew because I had asked the paramedics about ten minutes before), the month (I randomly guessed September, but I was pretty sure it could have just as easily been August or October). I did know the year, which made them happy.

Well, they got three liters of fluid in me (so I was in the ER for a little more than three hours), and I was feeling much better after the first half liter (although my heart rate and respiratory rate were still pretty fast, signs of dehydration), so I got to stick around for the remaining two and a half liters, reading People magazines from five and nine months ago. Great fun. Fortunately, I had the foresight to put my Metro card in my pocket before starting the race (finishers get Metro passes to go back to the Rockville station, where the race started), so I was able to get back to my car and go home.

Great fun. I just hope none of the Navy interns knew that I was in the ER today. It could make work tomorrow fairly embarrassing.