Certifiable

Had a regular check-up with my doctor yesterday morning and got the sign-off of my “medical certification” for Reunion.  This was quite a project as I had to translate the entire document from French into English, so my doctor could understand what assurances he was signing off on.  Some of the translations were humorous, like #8 from their list of the “10 Ways” for good sportsmanship:

8.      TOBACCO : The use of tobacco affects health.  It is particularly dangerous to smoke one hour before until two hours after a sporting event.

This makes me curious how many ultra-marathon contestants need to spark a butt up right before launching into a 58-mile run?

All kidding aside, the notice points out some of the particularly perilous parts of the race.  I highlighted the following bullet so my doctor knew this was serious:

-                      aware of the length and difficulty of this race, taking place in the mountains where environmental conditions may be extreme (humidity, temperature variations from 32 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit and altitude from 0 to 8,200 feet above sea level), requiring very good training and a real capacity for personal autonomy

...and he still signed off, so I went straight to the local post office and posted it for Reunion.  If nothing else, I have a nice keepsake – a “Medical Certification for the Diagonal of Fools”, which implies I am certifiably insane?

Having a signed Certificate for the "diagonal of fools" = Certifiably Insane???

During my check-up I asked about taking a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) for a test spin.  This is a device which gets attached to your body and yields constant real-time blood sugars (well, pretty near real-time, anyway).  Excited about the possibility of adding this to my arsenal, because this would tremendously reduce the attention I devote to mentally monitoring blood sugar during long runs: the monitor would allow me to simply glance at the read-out, thus investing greater focus on the terrain I am bound to face on Reunion.

Back to the training, I ran 12 miles down to Fort Fisher this morning.  Today is my daughter’s 15^th birthday and after last night’s sleepover with three of her friends, my wife drove them down to the beach there, so I had a ride back!  I made it to the beach around 9:15AM and they arrived about a half hour later, where we relaxed until noon.

My run was disappointing.  Despite abandoning any weights, I still seem weary and lethargic, quite different from the marathon training when I was tackling these runs with gusto.  Will still press on and rack up the miles, but I may not ramp up to sixty mile weeks so quickly and try to get so more shuteye.