Great North Run - short review

[MissChampers]

Amongst inexperienced runners, dehydration and heat exhaustion are probably the commonest causes. If they over hydrate with plain water then hyponatraemia may ensue which is *very* nasty and can kill or permenantly addle your brain.

In addition, it's quite possible to have an undectected heart problem that only becomes a problem in extreme circumstances. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is high on the list as are intracardiac conduction defects that cause rhythm disturbances (and/or death).

I personally reckon if you've been running and racing regularly for years the chances of undetected HOCM and conduction defects are probably very slight so I don't lose any sleep over them. (If they were going to kill you, they'd probably already have done so). ;-)

I read about hyponatraemia a while back and isn't it something to do with too much water along with excess sweating depleting the body of salt and minerals? I always make sure now I drink one of those sports drinks beforehand as well as water and glucose gel.