Run to Win: Hydration

"Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified." 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 - New Living Translation

 Last week we took a look at properly fueling your body for optimum performance and recovery.  As important as good and healthy food is for running, proper hydration is even more important. Proper nutrition can be the difference between a good run and a great run. Proper hydration can be the difference between life and death... it really is that important.

Without water, there is no life.  Believe it or not, the human body is 55-60% water.  That's right... more than half of you is water. To remain alive and functioning properly, you need to keep a healthy amount of water in your body. Throughout the course of the day, we are constantly losing water, whether through perspiration, evaporation, respiration, urination, etc. Since we are constantly losing water, we have to consistantly replace the water that we lose.  Otherwise, we will become dehydrated.  It is a never-ending process.

Why is hydration so key to running to win?  I'm glad you asked.  As we learned last week, to get energy and power from your muscles, you need fuel and oxygen.  That fuel and oxygen is transported to your cells via the bloodstream. Blood is about 70% water (about 50% in the blood plasma and 20% in the blood cells). Blood is also responsible for removing waste (like lactic acid) from the muscle cells.  As you run, you lose water through perspiration and the water vapor in your breath.  If you do not replace some of that lost water, you will become dehydrated.  As you become deydrated, the percent of water in the blood plasma decreases and your blood becomes more viscous (or thick) - which makes the heart have to work all the more to maintain blood flow through your lungs and into your muscles.  Also, your overall blood volume decreases.  To compensate, your blood cells release some of their water into the blood plasma, making them less effective, and the blood vessels constrict to maintain blood pressure... which inturn also makes blood flow more challenging.  Are you starting to get the picture?  Less blood flow means less oxygen and fuel getting to the muscles (and brain as well) and less lactic acid being removed... which means you start breathing harder (because you need more oxygen) and your heart starts beating harder and harder and your muscles begin to ache and fatigue due to the presence of lactic acid.  Meanwhile, your core body temperature begins to rise because the blood is not able to effectively keep your body cooled.  If this process continues, it just gets worse and worse and can become pretty serious.  Not only are red blood cells (the cells responsible for transporting oxygen) and plasma (the part of the blood carrying fuel and removing waste) present in the blood, but white blood cells are also present. White blood cells are cells of the immune system involved in defending the body against both infectious disease and foreign materials. It would stand to reason that if the effectiveness of your circulatory system is reduced due to dehydration, then your immune system would be compromised as well.  So hydration is extremely important, not only as we run to win, but in staying healthy and alive.

The best way to prevent dehydration is to stay hydrated.  Depending on the rate at which you sweat, it may be unreasonable to replace all lost fluids as you run.  A good way to determine the amount of fluids lost through perspiration is to weigh yourself before and after a run. 1 pound of weight loss = about a pint of fluid.  I can easlily lose 4 - 5 pounds in a long run of an hour or more.  That equal to 1/2 gallon or more.  I can't imagine drinking that much water while running.  In fact, the body can't even process that much water at once.  So the best thing to do is make sure you are well hydrated before you run, replace some lost fluids while you run, and make sure you replace the remaining amount of lost fluids over the next few hours after a run.

Not only does the body lose fluids through perspiration, it also loses electrolytes. The water in the body is not "fresh" water.  It has minerals mixed in it that are called electrolytes. Electrolytes are important because they are what your cells (especially nerve, heart, muscle) use to maintain voltages across their cell membranes and to carry electrical impulses (nerve impulses, muscle contractions) across themselves and to other cells.  Two commonly known electrolytes found in the body are sodium and potassium.  If you have ever tasted the sweat that comes from your body, it tastes salty.  That is because the sweat contains the electrolyte sodium chloride (also known as salt).  One mistake that endurance runners (or walkers) often make is replacing fluids without replacing electrolytes. Drinking a lot of plain water with no added electrolytes can create an electrolyte imbalance.  This can also prove to be a serious and potentially deadly mistake.  The body likes to maintain a balance of salinity between the fluids outside of its cells and the fluids inside its cells.  When the fluids outside of the cells become less "salty", the less salty water rushes into the cells to create a balance.  This causes the cells to swell. Most cells can handle the swelling, but brain cells (because they are encased in the skull) cannot. The condition associated with low sodium levels in the body is called hyponatremia.  Some of the symptoms of hyponatremia are confusion, hallucinations, drowsiness, nausia and vomiting, muscle weakness, convulsions, etc.  Not a pretty sight. The body can also suffer from low levels of potassium.  This condition is called hypokalemia.  Symptoms of hypokalemia are abnormal heart rhythms, fatigue, muscle weakness and spasms/cramps, even paralysis.  It is important, if you are replacing a lot of fluids that were lost during exercise, that you also replace electrolytes as well.  Many popular sports drinks like Gatorade and Powerade have electrolytes in them.

Now you know that proper hydration is key in running to win. My question now is can you become spiritually dehydrated?  Let's look at the symptoms of dehydration and apply them to our race of life and see.  Dryness: ever feel like your life has just dryed up... or that you are walking through a barren desert? The eyes stop making tears: ever suffer from "dry-eye disease, where you just don't feel anything... you are just numb to the world? Muscle cramps: every move you make just hurts or you are just tense and you are quick to snap out at those around you for no reason at all? Heart palpitations... confusion... weakness... possibly even becoming comatose.  Have you ever experienced any of these?  I ask you again... can we become spiritually dehydrated?  I think, yes.  What is the cure? Where is the prevention?

In the Gospel of John, Jesus says this: "Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life (John 4:13-14 - New Living Translation)."  Later in the Gospel of John, Jesus stands up in the midst of a crowd and shouts this out: "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from the heart of anyone who believes in me’ (John 4:37-38)." The cure and the prevention for spiritual dehydration is coming to Jesus and believing in Him. And I imagine the Living Water that He gives us is perfectly balanced with all the things that we need.  Worship is the fountain head for all that we have need of.  Jesus has promised that if we come to Him and remain with Him, we will never experience spiritual dryness.  He may lead us through some dry places, but as long as we stay with Him, we will be an oasis of life in the midst of the desert.  Now, if we stop coming to Jesus, we can expect to experience a little dehydration.  Dehydration is serious stuff... both physically and spiritually. But it is preventable.

Let's run the race... Hydrated with rivers of living water!