Can't Beat the Heat

"Maybe we should take up golf," I joke to John Pettinichio.

John is keeping me company while I am getting treated for heat exhaustion after the Tilden Tough Ten. Maybe this year's race should be called the Tilden Torch Ten. We're sitting in the shade, staying as cool as possible after climbing Tilden's hills for 70-plus minutes on this 90-ish degree morning.

I must have looked pretty bad when I finished. Lake Merritt Joggers and Striders (LMJS) president Len Goldman immediately had two volunteers escort me to the chair where I now sit. A woman named Candice applied a bag of ice on my shoulders, gave me a couple of bottles of water and told me that I had stopped sweating.

It was a tough race, the hottest since my first at this event in 2000. I have salt patches on my shorts and skin where my perspiration has dried. Since this event runs simultaneously with the more famous Bay to Breakers in San Francisco, news media were full of warnings about taking precautions against the heat. Experts said to hydrate on Saturday and Sunday, but I don't think the nine glasses of water I drank yesterday or the two this morning did much besides make me pee a lot.

I didn't feel the symptoms of heat exhaustion like light-headedness and disorientation. I deliberately took water at every stop, which I rarely do in a race shorter than a marathon. Halfway through the race I think I saw 32 minutes on my watch, which seems fast, but my memory may not be clear. My final time was 71:13, so I ran the second half in 39 minutes.

Heat like this can be dangerous. Around mile eight I came upon one of the lead runners lying on the side of the road. He was much younger than I, somewhere in his 20s. I asked if he needed help, but another runner monitoring him told me that someone else had sent word for assistance.

My time was more than four minutes slower than last year, a common story for many of us. Here are the gaps in times in 2009 compared to 2008 for some notable runners:

• Roy Rivers (M52): 4:13 slower in 2009
• Jeff Teeters (M49): 3:47 slower
• Me (M44): 4:21 slower
• Jenny Wong (F33): 4:34 slower
• John Pettinichio (M53): 4:34 slower

The sentiment after the race is less euphoric and more grateful that we are able to withstand these conditions, and also a bit of a reminder that we aren't professional athletes--in many cases we aren't very young either--and sometimes we have to take it easy.

As I recuperate a full contingent of public safety vehicles pulls into the parking lot. Fire vehicles and a police car provide assistance and escorts. Someone tells me a helicopter airlifted someone. I completely missed that. Maybe I'm not so lucid.

My fortunes begin to change. A volunteer hands me three raffle prizes. This is quite a bonanza since I'd never won a raffle prize in the six previous times running this race. I have prizes numbers 22, 28 an 29, and I'm trying to figure out how I won three prizes. My bib number is 298, so maybe they mixed up the digits and gave me all the combinations. I tell Karen Andrews about this, and she checks into it. My hunch is correct. Karen returns with one of the three prizes, which includes a $20 gift certificate.

One person with a better thermostat is Ivan Medina (M22), who wins the race with the first sub-60 time since 2005, 59:29. Ivan has been training around the hills surrounding Lake Chabot, where the Lake Chabot Trail Challenge will take place in three weeks. He'll be the favorite there.

Jenny Wong wins the women's race, which she has dominated more than anyone over the last 10 years. Jenny has run the race eight times this decade, finishing first or second four times each. As refreshed as she looks in this photo, even she says her legs hurt days after the race.

I never left the shade so I didn't get a chance to see the results. I find out that even though my time was my slowest since 2004 I placed third in my age group (M40-49), 13th overall. I'm fortunate because I would have placed fourth in the M50-59 caegory. This is only the second time I've won a medal out of seven races. It has been a good season so far, as I've won six medals in seven races and it isn't even summer.

I have a week to recover before the Marin Memorial Day 10K. It's a flat course and the weather should be much cooler, but I think I'll have to take a few days off and run easy.