Re: O/T 3 Runners Die in Detroit Marathon

A friend of mine just ran a marathon in San Francisco over the weekend- She's 51 and has been running for 25-30 years although this was her first marathon. She trained for this for months...

They did track 3-4 times a week and also did a long run every week, upping their distance each week. They don't run the full 26 miles till the actual marathon though, I think the longest run they did prior was 20 miles. She said that it was HARD, that there are times when the pain is overwhelming, even more then that is the mental strength it takes to keep going when the body wants to rest. A good thing about training in a group for this is that they were able to play word games to keep their minds off their aching bodies...

I tried some of the electrolyte chews she uses, kinda like gummi bears, pretty darn tasty, actually. They're very high calorie because of course the body needs a lot of energy to do a run like this. They can't carry water because of the weight so they rely on the "stations" or whatever they're called to get water, then they just throw the bottles down.

Not something that I'd want to do- I think it's crazy(ssshhhh, don't tell her I said that).

Who knows why those men died? Did not train properly, did not supply themselves with proper nutrition prior to or during the run, preexisting conditions.

One thing's for sure these days- the fact that someone is young does not automatically mean that they have better health then an older person, sad to say. When us 50-somethings were growing up, we did NOT get a ton of vaccinations and there was NOT a ton of junk food around. Processed foods were a rarity, soda pop was an occasional treat. There were only three channels on our television, there were no videogames, computers or Cell Phone s so we got the exercise and fresh air that we needed...

Young people now have far greater challenges then we older folks did.