#35

I Finished the Gymrace. 3 Days later I was on IV drip

Three days after I crossed the finish line at Gymrace I was on a hospital IV drip, staring at a blood result I didn't understand. My Creatine Kinase (CK), the marker that tells you how much muscle you've destroyed, was in the 1000s. Normal levels should only be a few hundred. That’s something nobody tells you before your first fitness race.

The condition has a name, and it's one most men who sign up for these events have never heard: exertional rhabdomyolysis.

But before we get into all that , Reader , it’s been a while. I took a long summer off but I’m back now to get you through you the rest of the year and set you up for 2027! We’ve got a lot to do until then so let's lock in.

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Now, here’s how I ended up in the hospital.

First, the good part. GYMRACE is a European fitness race (the race I was competing in): five 1km runs with two functional movements between each 1km run. Wall balls, lunges, sled pushes for example. Think HYROX with less running, nobody 💩 on themselves and more work. It's brutal, and it's one of the best things I've ever done.

The training was the best part. I trained five times a week for two and a half months. If you’re anything like me, lifting weights on its own can get stale. But training for something with a date in the calendar changes everything. Every session had a point. As someone who has been training and lifting weights for 20 years this was refreshing.

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Then, race day. Every timed session, every test run, every rehearsal completely left my body the second I heard the word GO.

I hit my first 1km in 4:30 (a PB). Hit the first station. 50m sled push with 150kg followed by 100 wall balls.

Then my legs seized up! WTH! I'd practised this a hundred times but today it felt like foreign to my body. It was like driving on empty with the nearest petrol station 250 miles away.

I seriously thought about quitting (like, seriously thought about it) because I couldn’t physically see how I was going to complete this race. But my wife and friends were in the crowd and part of me didn't want the shame of stopping in front of them after hyping the whole thing up for so long. Although, that's not what kept me going. I knew there was more in me I just hadn't got to it yet.

I finished in 1 hour 20. I was pissed at the time. I later found out that's almost exactly the average finish. I'd run a dead-average race on a day my body had nothing in it. Wasn’t quite sure how to feel about that.

Then, the days after. The delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) was worse than anything I’ve ever experienced, and it was worse on day three than day one, which should have been my first clue. Then my urine went dark. Properly dark all signs of **exertional rhabdomyolysis** which I mentioned earlier.

We're conditioned to wait these things out. See if it passes. Don't make a fuss. That instinct nearly cost me my kidneys.

When muscle breaks down at that scale it dumps a protein called myoglobin into your bloodstream. Your kidneys have to filter it, and in enough volume it clogs and poisons them. Dark urine is the receipt. I spent three sessions on IV fluids and walked out under orders to drink three litres of water a day for life.

So is the lesson don't do GYMRACE or Hyrox? No. Do it. I’ve found that it’s one of the best ways to train and adds more variety to your workout.

The lesson is that the race isn't over when you cross the line and the race doesn’t start on race day. It starts 7 days before.

• Have a taper plan for that week. How will you train the week of the race. My advice is to reduce the volume of whatever you’ve been doing and reduce intensity.
• Increase your water intake 7 days beforehand.
• Make sure you’re taking your electrolytes every day. Twice if possible.
• Sleep 7-9 hours every night
• Increase your carbohydrate in take 30-40 grams per KG of your weight.

I could go on and maybe I’ll do a dedicated post on what I’d do differently but this should give you some insight into things to think about before your first fitness race.

The Man Daily Way

• Taper, don't cram. The last week before an event is for sharpening, not proving. I trained through it. That's on me.
• Salt, not just water. Three litres of plain water dilutes you. Get electrolytes in every day from 3 days out and especially on race day morning.
• The 72-hour rule. Anything still wrong 3 days after is not "just DOMS." Get bloods done. Worst case, you wasted an afternoon.
• Check the colour. Dark urine after a hard session is your body sending you a bill.