Joanne Lee SmithChronic pain and symptoms recovery Nurse / Coach

The Exhaustion of Ultra-Running

5 Aug 2024 · 1 min

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0:49

In this brief interview segment, Speaker A describes the extreme fatigue experienced during an ultra‑run that began at midday after being awake since 6 am. After more than 30 hours without sleep, they report feeling sick, experiencing motion/sea‑sickness, and a swaying sensation when attempting to walk or run. To cope, they adopt a shuffling gait rather than a normal walking stride, noting that shuffling reduces the unsettling motion and helps them continue the race. Speaker B prompts for clarification, but the focus remains on the physiological impact of prolonged wakefulness and the tactical shift to shuffling as a mitigation strategy.

Chapters

And the issue is it starts at midday. I'd already been awake since 6 AM.
Yeah, yeah.
So I'd already been awake 6 hours before I even set off.
Yeah.
And I'm just so like, when you're getting beyond 30 hours and you've been awake, it's too much for me.
So how do you start feeling at that point?
Sick. I don't know, I start to feel like if I, if I have to be running, if I walk, I'm going at a different motion. I'm starting to sway, I'm getting seasick, I'm getting motion sickness, so I've got to keep it at a shuffle. Yeah. That's why when we were talking before, I was thinking my tactic would be less walking and more shuffling.
Yeah.
Every day I'm shuffling, you know. I've got— for me, my tactic is not a walk.
Yeah.