Withdrawn, DNC (Did Not
Complete), these are the words that all runners dread, yet it features
somewhere in the back of every multi-stage endurance participants mind. This
thought is not a dominant or debilitating thought as one might expect, but in
some regards, serves as the strongest motivator during training. Each endurance
runner invests many committed hours in training, physical and mental discipline
and general conditioning all with one fundamental aim – to complete the race.
Completing the race, for the majority of runners, is the primary objective,
time, ranking etc., comes in as a secondary objective.
If these words, then serves as
such great motivator during training, what happens during a race that turns
these motivating words into the most dreaded reality? Well, there are a few
obvious reasons why a runner will withdraw, or be withdrawn by the race
organizers and/or medical personnel. The first is sustaining a serious injury
during the race, or in some cases, bringing a known or underlying injury or medical
condition into the race, where it simply escalates out of control.
Unfortunately, there is not much a runner can do about this and in my opinion a
withdrawn or DNC is far better than worsening an injury to the point that it
impacts negatively upon an individual’s running future.
The second reason is dehydration;
the effect of dehydration varies from mild dehydration that can be corrected to
something so serious that the runner is withdrawn from the race. The signs of
dehydration are evident everywhere during a multi-stage endurance race, but no
more so than when we look at the condition of many runners’ feet. Often serious
blister problems are the direct result of dehydration. Fluid management is a
critical factor in ensuring that the words withdrawn and DNC does not become a feared
reality. Treat small issues before they become big disasters is by far the best
way to manage yourself throughout a race. A five minute stop at a check point
(CP) to check your heart rate, clean your feet and check your own hydration levels
saves much pain and time over the duration of the race.
But these are the obvious things.
There are, however, a far more sinister reality the lurks in the background and
haunts every multi-stage endurance racer, it is our varying mental state during
the extreme pressures and stresses that the race, the environment and the
terrain forces on our physical bodies as well as the mental fatigue that we are
subjected to. The monotony of running for prolonged hours day after day,
combined with the physical deterioration and tiredness of our bodies over this
time becomes a very strong force, that must be efficiently managed or else it
will be the reason for a runner not completing the entire race.
Our primary enemy in this regard
is exhaustion and pain, so how do we deal with it?
It is not simply a matter of
denying the reality or confessing an alternative reality that will resolve the problem,
no it requires strategy, discipline, self-knowledge, honesty and in some cases
cunning. In any race, there will come a time that you will have to dig deep to
overcome the desire to simply give up, you will have to speak to those inner
daemons of self-doubt, and past failures, and battle it out until the strongest
element wins. For those that are incapable of winning the battle of the mind
the dreaded DNC will be entered behind your name. But this is not a hopeless
situation; one can prepare and manage the battle of the mind just as one would
train the body.
The first step in preparing the
mind, is to never underestimate the value of a long-run (5 hours plus) in
training. The time spent dealing with monotony, pain, tiredness and a host of
other factors has as much benefit for the mind as it has for the body. The
second step in preparing your mind is to embrace solitude. During periods of
solitude, you will have to be able to take control of your mind to keep it
focused on the task at hand. But, once again, these are actually very obvious
solutions that we often overlook.
Unfortunately, there is another
danger that, I believe, is the cause of many runners having the letters DNC
entered behind their names. Multi-stage endurance racers have become obsessed
with shedding race weight, participants run with super light race packs, cut
the handles of tooth brushes and do a host of things that will reduce race pack
weight to the absolute minimum, in the hope that this will provide the edge.
Simple physics dictates that with a limited energy reserve, the only way to
increase running speed would be to reduce weight, this is true. However, the
majority of runners out there will never be able to compete for a top 5 or
10-percent position, so for these runners increasing speed has little
additional benefit. The danger, however, with this weight shedding obsession is
that runners find the extra weight to shed within their race food. There is another
law of physics that simply states that for any object to remain in motion, no
matter how fast or slow, it requires a steady energy supply. Runners are often
encouraged to pack 20-percent less calories than what their body would need
during the race, and as I have learned in recent months, even as high as
33-percent less than what the body needs.
So what does this have to do with
the dreaded DNC letters behind a runner’s name? Simply this, food has a twofold
function for any endurance racer, firstly it serves to provide fuel for the
body to burn, which in-turn will keep the body in motion, but secondly, and one
might argue, more importantly it has a hugely psychological effect. Don’t
underestimate this psychological effect, as it might cost you your race.
Running on empty is not fun, I had to do it during the long stage of the
Kalahari Augrabies Extreme Marathon, and does not which the pain, struggle or
discomfort upon my worst enemy. But it was at 74km’s, in the early hours when
the dessert temperature had dropped to -1 degree Celsius and my body started to
become hypothermic that my mind became irrational. It presented the most
eloquent arguments for quitting. As I struggled through the sand the defences
of my mind was gradually eroded by the many inner daemons that seems to travel
with us on our journeys. At 74km’s the breaking point came, I had dug deep, I
had fought and victory was hanging in the balance. That early morning I went on
to complete my stage and eventually completed the race, but at 74km’s there was
a decisive moment where the battle had to be decided. Exhausted, in pain,
bitterly cold, hungry, and alone, the battle was won with nothing more than a
sucker, and some good humour. At 74km’s I sat down for 20 minutes, wrapped a
space blanket around myself, put a sucker in my mouth and used my sense of
humour to regain control. The crew at the last CP provided their support by
being there, but it was the sucker with its overpowering sweet taste, and
energy rush that broke the hold over my mind, and allowed me, in that moment to
regain control.
Some of you might think that I attribute
too much to the sucker, but the reality is that every little bit of energy that
is in your race pack provides you with an opportunity to succeed. Nutrition is
a very personal thing but there is an underlying scientific law that dictates
how much energy an individual will need to remain functional. Don’t get caught
up in the weight reduction hype, and don’t let the letters DNC behind your name
be as a result of bad overall preparation, lack of self-management and lack of
sufficient nutrition. Don’t let DNC stand for ‘Deficient Nutritional Catastrophe’.
But let’s return to a more
scientific approach to this argument, let’s do the maths to see what the
possible benefits could be if nutrition reduction is used as the weight
reduction agent. There is an accepted rule of thumb that states that a runner
will lose 25 minutes per kilogram of weight over 4kg’s on their standard
marathon time. What this means is that if a runner is normally capable of
running a marathon in 4 hours, that the same runner, running with a 10kg race
pack will take 2 ½ hours longer to complete the same marathon distance. A
modest calorie to weight ratio would be around 4,2 kCal per gram.
The average runner will need in
the order of 3,000 kCal’s per day or rather 21,000 kCal’s over the duration of
the race. This is a worst case calculation and does not allow for the weight
reduction of the first day’s breakfast, nor the last day’s dinner that is not
needed, nor does it consider the day by day weight reduction that takes place
as a result of eating the weight away.
|
|
21,000kCal
(3,000kCal per day)
Full Compliment
|
17,500kCal
(2,500kCal per day)
Reduced Compliment
|
14,000kCal
(2,000kCal per day)
Minimum Compliment
|
|
Food Weight
(4,2kCal/gram)
|
5,000g
|
4,166g
|
3,333g
|
|
Food Weight Reduction (g) (Reduction in relation to full compliment)
|
0g
|
834g
|
1,667g
|
|
Time Impact of Weight Reduction over a Marathon
Distance (minutes)
|
None
|
20min 51sec
|
41min 41sec
|
|
Time Difference over Entire Race Distance (250km assuming no progressive weight
reduction)
|
None
|
+/- 2hours
|
+/- 4hours
|
|
Position change for the average runner placing in
the middle of the race group. (2012
race results used)
|
Position 380
43H48'49
5.66km/h
|
Position 321
41H48'22
5.93km/h
7% Position Gain
|
Position 275
39H49'20
6.23km/h
13% Position Gain
|
The question that remains is
whether the added potential health risks, DNC or withdrawal risks associated
with calorie reduction outweighs the potential 2 to 4 hours (17 to 34minutes
per day) that might be gained through the weight reduction. Most of the MdS runners
will successfully complete the race, but each one runs the risk of not
completing the race. In some cases nature will dictate the outcome and all that
a participant can do is to adapt, for some it will be the natural outcome of insufficient
preparation, however, in some cases, it will simply be the lack of inefficient
hydration and nutrition management that spells disaster.
I hope that this blog entry
provides some insight and that the content provides a starting point from which
each runner can make an informed decision.
Thank you for visiting my blog
Genis
