Triathlon Cozumel and Alistair Brownlee

This is a champion we need as a human race:  Alistair Brownlee.  We need many champions as Alistair.  Global warming, war for unintelligent reasons and ugliness are present because of our lack of education.  Alistair helping his brother in Cozumel is an example of an action from the Greatest.  We also saw what the apartheid created: Richard Murray and Henri Schoeman.  The first generation of a culture coming out of insensitivities after many years of practicing indifference:  Apartheid.  When Alistair, Henri and Richard were asked about the situation, Alistair said, “I would do it for anybody not just my brother.”  I believe that he would help the one falling.  Henri was apologetic for winning but was not interested in helping Johnny when he was falling, the opposite: “I was the strongest.”  The one that blew my mind was Richard, he did not know who the real winner was.  He thought it was Mario Mola and started speaking about his teammate without paying attention to THE BIG VICTORY, the human race winning and triathlon culture.  Richard did not address the question ignoring what he saw with the Brownlees.  This is a scary apartheid product.

Crisanto Grajales saw the Brownlee brothers’ action from the aesthetic point of view and said: “I hope he does not get disqualified because he had a great race.”  He has not said anything regarding the discrimination of the Mexican Federation against the poor swimmers.  Even if they win and leave the water with the pack, they are not allowed to compete outside Mexico because of the “marcas mínimas.”  Money and control over the state budget is the real issue.  They have not landed in this century, still in the apartheid era.  Not to mention the supposed protest from the Spanish Federation, no comment if that existed. Javier Gómez has said enough regarding this Federation.  

We have written about the subject of overheating:

16 juin 2014

Triathlon and Acclimation II

We have part one acclimation where we explained what happened to one of our athletes.  I read what happened to Tommy Zaferes a week ago in Dallas and saw images of Lescure falling 50 meter before the finish line in Huatulco this past weekend.

The Seizure:

Once I crossed the line I immediately flopped on the floor and started seizing. Personnel came over and moved me out of the way like a limp bag of rice and got me to the paramedics. I apparently had a heatstroke and then a seizure (which the doctors say can cause death, brain damage, and major organ failure). They airlifted me to a hospital and called my parents right away to fly out from California. I ended up being intubated and on a ventilator for 19hrs before they moved me to another hospital. I had major short term memory loss and had no idea what was going on. I don’t remember, but I need to thank Courtney Kulick from USAT, Rob Canalas from ROKA, the Huffmans,(and anyone else I don’t remember) for being there for me until my parents, and girlfriend (who flew from London!), came. The support I received was amazing!

Bonus Material:

The doctors said that all my sodium levels were normal (if I wasn’t hydrated or if I didn’t have enough electrolytes these should have been completely depleted) so they think that I had a small virus which wasn’t showing any symptoms leading into the race and that the race conditions and effort put me over the top and caused the heatstroke and seizure. Having a heatstroke in these conditions isn’t that uncommon, but having a seizure is what caused all the panic.

My body temperature was 103 at the hospital.

I am a doctor and have followed patients who have had this problem.  It is not about temperature in itself.  It is mainly related to humidity.  32 degrees Celsius with 90% humidity makes the condition for many athletes being exposed to heatstroke.  To produce the phenomenon of heatstroke we do not need the highest temperatures, what we need is very high humidity (this is a Petri dish for heatstroke).  The body in itself takes care of increasing the temperature when is unable to decrease the temperature by sweeting (evaporation of water through sweeting is the way we use to cool down our body).  You did not have a virus Tommy; your acclimation to humidity was not enough.

12 juin 2013

ACCLIMATATION IN TRIATHLON

Several years ago, perhaps the year 1999 or 98, José Merchan was winning the race in Ixtapa, Mexico, for more than 100 meters when he felt down 200 meters before the finish line. I have seen several athletes falling after that, including Sara Groff (in a video).

 Ixtapa Triathlon - Ixtapa, Mexico (ITU Points Race)

Swim 1.5Km - Bike 40Km - Run 10Km
November 13, 1999

Men:

 1. Doug Friman          (USA)   1:51:51  (16:59, 0:59:59, 34:38)

 2. Alec Rukosuev        (USA)   1:52:18  (16:56, 0:58:59, 34:58)

 3. Jose Luis Zepeda     (MEX)   1:52:27  (16:54, 0:58:56, 35:15)

 4. Victor Plata         (USA)   1:53:07  (17:02, 0:59:08, 35:34)

 5. Wes Hobson           (USA)   1:53:38  (17:28, 0:58:40, 36:10)

 6. David Hyan           (RSA)   1:54:33  (17:00, 0:58:55, 37:10)

 7. Eligio Cervantes     (MEX)   1:54:39  (17:28, 1:01:46, 34:05)

 8. Leandro Macedo       (BRA)   1:54:48  (17:36, 1:01:59, 33:45)

 9. Rob Barel            (NED)   1:55:13  (17:42, 1:01:02, 25:52)

10. Uzziel Valderrabano  (MEX)   1:55:46  (17:57, 1:01:35, 34:56)

11. Arturo Garza         (MEX)   1:56:10

12. Javier Macias        (MEX)   1:57:36

13. Jim Quinn            (USA)   1:57:47

14. Alvaro Martinez      (MEX)   1:58:09

15. Philippe LeDuff      (FRA)   1:58:58

16. Sergio Quezada       (MEX)   1:59:10

17. Francisco Serrano    (MEX)   1:59:34

18. Enrique Molina       (MEX)   1:59:48

19. Allan Villanueva     (MEX)   2:00:21

20. Rodrigo Quevedo      (MEX)   2:01:03

21. Carlos Probert       (MEX)   2:01:56

22. Fernando Gomez       (MEX)   2:02:19

23. Marcus Ornellas      (BRA)   2:04:36

24. Jose Merchan         (ESP)   2:05:41

Merchan finished the race after falling.  It was very humid and hot when that happened.  This year the same thing happened, one of our athletes was stopped from racing before falling (9km) into the running.  He started to have problems after 3k running.  Ixtapa had above 32 degrees Celsius and 90% humidity.  Our athlete was used to the temperature but not to that degree of humidity (it rained the night before and the race was at 10am). He was hydrated with 3 liters of water and electrolytes in the last two hours before the race. He was second when passing the first lap (2.5k), after that he started to slow down until he was ready to fall at the 9k mark.  Our athlete mentioned that since he started to slow down he had problems focusing things and does not remembered when he was stopped until he was taken to the hospital and his temperature was decreased to normal levels, when he recovered consciousness was in the hospital.  His blood pressure was 90/40 when he arrived, his skin was dry and hot, he was able to stand up and walked with difficulties but he was incoherent.  Potasium, sodium, magnesium was within the normal limits; CPK mildly elevated 200 as well as creatinine 1.5, BUN within normal levels; his albumin was less than 3 (he eats 4g of proteins per kilo on daily basis).  Liver enzymes were within normal levels.  He was able to leave the hospital two hour later and took the plane back home four hour after the incident.  His temperature was within the normal levels after he left the hospital.  Laboratory test will be done today again.  There is a good article written regarding this subject for runners.  A one subject research (himself) that gives plenty information.

Johnny was grateful with the British doctors that were present.  Advice for foreigners!  It is not about not drinking the water in Mexico, which by the way, I did not see Johnny drinking water when competing, Alistair did it.  I have had several encounters with doctors in Mexico.  In one occasion, one of our athletes fell after arriving and started to vomit, the vomit became uncontrollable.  This was at the Mexican Nationals, I told the doctor that he needed an I.V. with saline -do not use 5% glucose because most of the athletes are hyponatremic- in addition, nothing happens if you give extra sodium to an athletes after a competition, the opposite could be very dangerous, below 129 starts the problem with sodium.  After I saw him vomiting six times, I jumped the fence and went straight to see the doctor and she told me that they did not I.V.’s in the tent and if I wanted to do something else I needed to take the athlete against medical advice.  We took the athletes with two more people and went to an ambulance parked next to the finish line.  There was no doctor in the ambulance but the nurses allow me to have an I.V. running if I would do the procedure.  I did it in the ambulance.

Thanks Alistair.  Chapeau! Champ.  I hope we can keep learning.