Worst-case race scenarios, pt. 2: Readers weigh in

The recent worst case scenarios article inspired many readers to write about their own less-then-ideal race experiences, and one reader helpfully offered a more reliable explanation for race cramping than I did.

John Martinez, MD is a sports medicine physician based in Fontana, Calif. He is currently writing an article for a sports medicine journal about exercise-associated cramps, and having worked in the medical tents of several Ironman races, he is something of an authority on the subject.

“A common misconception is that low potassium levels are responsible for muscle cramping,” John writes (and thus, I stand corrected). “This was the result of some initial medical studies done back in the 1920s and 1930s, but better-designed follow-up studies in athletes haven’t been able to support these findings. In fact, no association has been found between changes in potassium, sodium, and calcium and marathon runners experiencing cramps either during or immediately after their race.”

John explains that “Exercise-associated muscle cramps” (EAMC) are currently the best “concept” behind this common “worst case scenario.” EAMC is due to over-excitation of motor neuron activity, which causes the muscle to spasm.

“This tends to happen in muscles that cross two joints (like the calf muscles) and that are consistently contracted (like during swimming)," he says. "This cramping may actually be a protective mechanism to prevent damage to a fatigued muscle, although that’s more of a guess than evidence-based.”

As a result of this biomechanical response, it follows that simple stretching — rather than increased potassium intake — can typically help relieve such cramps.

John adds that other causes, or risk factors, for developing EAMC have been found to include the older age of an athlete, a longer history of running, a higher body-mass index, a lack of daily stretching, and a family history of muscle cramping.

While most of these causes are unavoidable facts of life, increased daily stretching is a preventative measure that you can take if you suffer from frequent or unexpected cramps during competition.

Slightly less scientific but no less informative is Bob Andrew’s account of a potentially dreadful race experience at Ironman Canada in 1997. Not one to blame cramping, lack of stretching or something as mundane as old age on his performance, Bob recounted the myth of a Loch Ness-type monster known as Ogopogo that resides in Lake Okanagan.

Legend has it that those competitors who skip the pre-race parade will suffer race-day misfortunes thanks to Ogopogo. Sure enough, after skipping the festivities the day before the Ironman to save his legs, Bob had barely started the swim portion of the event when he got kicked in the face, then lost his goggles.

Luckily enough, monster be damned, for Bob’s master’s swim coach had insisted that his swimmers do drills practicing heads-up sighting all year. Having grown accustomed to lifting his head out of the water periodically, Bob closed his eyes and swam the last 3.5 kilometers of the open-water swim with his eyes closed, except for every 10 strokes or so where he brought his head up and “sighted.”

He swam a straight line and his time was reasonable, salvaging a race that could have easily been sabotaged by Lake Okanagan’s legendary resident.

Not about to cross Ogopogo again, Bob walked in the pre-race parade the following year and reported no mishaps.

Some worst case scenarios simply defy any commentary or explanation, such as that of Al Trovinger of Alabama. During the Pelican Point triathlon a few months ago, a squirrel ran under his bike and got caught in the chain at the front of his derailleur! Before he could stop, the squirrel was in pieces and Al could not change gears for the remainder of the race.

My unsolicited advice? Brake for animals, I guess, if you have a chance!

Kathy Ritz seems to have had the misfortune of competing in races plagued by Mother Nature’s unpredictable command of the elements. A proud finisher of 1991’s notorious Crawfishman Half Ironman (written up as “the swim of the year” in many triathlon publications that season), Kathy recounts whitecaps so rough and swells so large that participants were either vomiting from motion sickness or straining their backs from the beating they took under the waves.

To get herself through the swim, she repeated the mantras, “I will not die on my kid’s 8th birthday” and “To finish first, you first must finish.”

Indeed she did finish, only to face Mother Nature’s wrath again at the 1995 Great Floridian Ironman. Approximately one-third of the participants dropped out of the swim due to motion sickness, though Kathy persisted to finish the swim — and the entire race.

After such experiences in worse-than-adequate conditions, Kathy concluded that “Mother Nature is always in charge, and she has no respect for you. Had I been in Utah at the Ironman“ — (a notoriously windy morning that was punctuated by large swells, a false start, and a the death of one participant) “ — I would have bagged the swim. I really don’t need to know if the ‘third time’ is really the charm!”

Seasoned competitors know that anything can (and will) happen when least expected, be it a snapped goggle, a sudden storm, or even a stray squirrel.

Those that remain calm under such unforeseen circumstances usually come away with nary a scratch — and a decent war story or two as the experiences above indicate.

Good Luck!