The Salty Truth – Runners Take Notice!

So I went out and ran ten miles yesterday. Was my first double digit run since The Chicago Marathon (10/10/10). If you read my previous article, you probably remember the problems that I had during the marathon which necessitated my dropping out at mile 21.

Well yesterday, even though it is still October here, it was a beautiful warm day. The run was no problem, but I was sweating quite a bit. Of course I drank plenty of Vitalyte during the run as well as carried and consumed plenty of gel.

But at the end of my run, as I was walking up my driveway, I noticed that I was covered in white crystals. Yes, you guessed it correctly, it was all of the salt that I had been losing from my sweat. Since this was only a ten miler, I did not have any real problem develop, but my guess is that if I would have turned this into a much longer run, I could have repeated the problem I had during the marathon.

When I got back in my house, I pulled a bottle of salt tablets (that I had bought many years ago for hiking in Grand Canyon) off of my shelf. I swallowed a 1 gram tablet with some water and almost immediately felt as good as new. I am starting to think that as much electrolytes as I try to consume on long runs, I sweat an awful lot and perhaps the only way to replenish my salts that I am losing is to do it with actual salt tablets!

Everyone is different and I know some of you have no problem, but sweating and hot weather for me have always been potential problems lurking during long runs and Grand Canyon hiking. So I may be back to some experimentation with my old friend, the little white salt pill!

Waddle on!

2 replies
  1. Terry Chaney
    Terry Chaney says:

    You are very correct- when you sweat you lose both sodium and potassium. Both are majorly important to your body and how it functions.

    Keep up the good work. Awesome 10 miles yesterday.

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