Friday, July 9, 2010

On Running Safely

Last Sunday during the 34th Milo Marathon, a fellow runner collapsed at the 20k mark of his 21k run. Unfortunately, he was not able to recover and he passed away this week. [I did not know him but he happened to be from HP where I worked until before this school year.]

This incident reminds me that every runner should take the marathon waiver seriously. The waiver usually says that running is a "potentially hazardous activity that could cause injury or death." How I wish it was proven wrong this week.

I hope this does not dishearten other runners in the country. Running is still fun and ideally free. But as with any other physical activity, runners should always come prepared especially (but not exclusively) when running long distances. They should train, rest, eat, and drink properly.

When I was in college, I only ran because we were required in our PE class to have a journal of our cardio-respiratory activities for the week. Well, I could have cheated but I'm not like some guys from the Milo Marathon (read about the cheaters from takbo.ph).

And so I did run but I was very much not yet ready (I couldn't do 5 minutes straight). I remembered I fainted twice. Once while I was having my haircut (right after a run) and another when I decided to sit down for a while and everything went white. This happened again when I was already working in HP. I ran after my shift (8pm to 5am) and I guess my body clock wasn't set for night shift yet.

Looking at those times kinda scare me now because that Milo Marathon guy could have been me then. Definitely it could have been any of us. So we must always come prepared.

The Bull Runner has a nice article on running safely here. Jaymie interviewed the top running authorities and compiled their answers in her blog.

I also googled some and found a nice article here. You will even find an article on what to do when you run into a black bear at Run The Planet.

My point is there are a lot of sources now on running safely that you can check out. So be informed and always be prepared.

Run safe, guys! :))

No comments:

Post a Comment