THE EXPERIMENT

This past August a runner went to Death Valley to attempt to run 150 miles from Badwater (the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere and the hottest spot on Earth) to the peak of Mt. Whitney (the highest point in the lower 48 states). One of the first runners to complete the course successfully advised him to do heat-training sessions in a dry sauna to teach his body to process fluids. He didn’t follow this advice. Instead the runner started his attempt in the evening, hoping to get through the valley before it heated up too much. The next day at noon, he was still in the valley. At 3:00 p.m. the temperature rose to 128 in the shade. After 30 hours on the road, the runner was still not out of Death Valley and (wisely) gave up.

At the Calgary Stampede Marathon a runner who had done no training run farther than 14 miles decided to use the strategy of “putting time in the bank” by going out fast since the day promised to become warm—this in spite of half a dozen experienced marathoners advising her that it was a suicidal move. She dropped out at 11 miles.

After calling the race director on almost a weekly basis to get training advice, another runner, this one training for Western States, decided he

November/December 1998

didn’t need altitude training, and he didn’t need any long runs farther than 30 miles. He figured if he kept himself just in front of the cutoff times at each aid station, he’d do just fine. It didn’t work. He was pulled from the course at 16 miles.

Running guru Dr. George Sheehan used to say that each of us is an “experiment of one.” It is difficult to argue with that observation. But even if we are experiments of one, is it really necessary to experiment on ourselves continually, especially in the face of compelling evidence that what we are about to do doesn’t work?

If we are looking to do well at running, to conduct a successful experiment of one, we’re a spoiled bunch, for hundreds of thousands of other runners have gone before us to record experiences of what works and what doesn’t. The results of those experiences are grist for the sports medicine scientists who have dedicated their lives to studying—on our behalf— what works and what doesn’t.

Running is fortunate in having a knowledgeable, dedicated army of scientists who have studied our sport—and who have, in many cases, run the same races we have or hope to.

In planning this issue dedicated to sports medicine, we had two primary objectives:

1. To schedule the issue for the winter months so marathoners and ultrarunners backing off a bit between seasons would have good, solid material to take with them into their next year.

2. To match our experts with topics that are of special interest to them and that are as current in the research as is humanly possible.

The contributors to our sports medicine issue are all members of the M&B Science Advisory Board. There isn’t one of them who wouldn’t admit to having made mistakes in the past in their training and racing. But every one of them has learned from those mistakes, hopefully never to make the same mistake again. And perhaps to save you from taking an ill-advised turndownablindalley. —Rich Benyo

a TRANSITIONS:

ie » TI, No. 1 (our Jaman) Repay 1999 issue), hee will be a the scenes at Marathon & Beyond that the casual reader might — rathon & Be ond will ‘be published by oe) Press, Tne., 7

th in Marathon . Beyond. their ein in talide the project, and

/ ‘sustained support of the magazine for its first two years. We hope all a our _ faithful readers will enjoy the . as we embark on Stage Two of M&B.

November/December 1998