DIARY OF A MARATHON RUNNER – MARCH HAEMATURIA ET AL

6 WEEKS TO GO…..

Lovely friend is doing amazingly well with her training.  She ran 19 miles on Saturday in a very good time.

She wrote about fitting training around her FOUR children recently:-

“It is hard to fit training in around the family but I have a pretty strict schedule. Three of my children are at school so they are all at school by 9am but my 2 year old goes to nursery three mornings a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday and I drop her off at 9.15. Basically I start at 9.30am and am in the park with the dog (combining dog walk with training) and I run/group train for at least an hour. Tuesdays I don’t train as it’s a rest day but on Thursday it is tricky as my 2 year old is at home. I usually ask a local au pair to look after her for an hour or so whilst I run. My long run is on a Sunday so I get up early and go out for 2 to 3 hours running – I know it sounds ridiculous but I even try and stick a joint of lamb in the oven on a low heat so that Sunday lunch is cooking whilst I’m out. My husband is totally rubbish at doing anything in the kitchen!

I always run to music and plan to do the same for large parts of the marathon. I have been told you shouldn’t during the actual race as the crowd support is so wonderful and motivating so I think I will probably only use it for part of the way. But in training I can’t run without my ipod and I actually have several running playlists…

I make sure I am well hydrated before and during the run but you are right too much water will impair your running. Water plays a massive part before, during and after running but only in sensible amounts – not glugging but sipping.

I tend to run alone. This has happened mainly because as you will have read I don’t have any close friends doing the marathon so I don’t have a training buddy. However several (very fit!) friends have said they will run my long Sunday run with me and a couple have done some short ones with me but I actually prefer running at my own pace and don’t like the thought of having to go too fast or too slow to keep up with others. I do enjoy my group training on a Wednesday as I can see all my friends otherwise I think I might get a bit lonely!!

This week “urine” seemed to be the topic of conversation for several different reasons:-

Firstly she appears to have developed a very strange affliction called “March Haematuria”.  We googled it:-

A discharge of blood into the urine (haematuria) can be very frightening, especially if the victim has a little knowledge of medicine and realizes that haematuria is associated with a number of serious diseases. However, it may also be a relatively harmless condition, and is quite common in those who exercise intensively. Cases of haematuria are so common in long-distance walkers and runners that the innocuous occurrence of haemoglobin in the urine is sometimes called march haemoglobinuria, runner’s haematuria, or runner’s haemolysis. One theory is that haematuria is caused by the soles of the feet pounding against a hard surface and breaking open red blood cells; haemoglobin is released and eliminated in the urine. Another theory is that myoglobin (the special oxygen-carrying red pigment in muscles) may be released into the bloodstream from muscles in the legs. Myoglobin is smaller than haemoglobin and can pass through the kidney filter into the urine.

No treatment is needed if the haematuria is benign. In some cases of haematuria associated with sports, the internal organs (especially the kidneys and bladder) may suffer chronic agitation and shaking, which damages the walls of the organs. The organs usually repair themselves if the exerciser takes sufficient rest. Nevertheless, anyone noticing blood in their urine should consult a physician so that it can be diagnosed professionally and, if necessary, treated”.

HOW BIZARRE to have blood cells breaking up from the soles of your feet and coming out in your wee!!

The next issue we discussed is what to do when you need a wee when you’re actually running the marathon.  Apparently there can be queues of up to half an hour for the loos which after all that training would be deeply frustrating.  She’s just going to have to wear incontinence pants or not wee at all for four hours.  I wouldn’t cope with that at all.