The Little Things
August 13, 2014

Welcome to another edition of my living with POTS series (for more information on POTS, click here). Today’s post is by Tara, an ultramarathoner who has POTS. Her story is pretty interesting, so I hope you enjoy it!

Living With POTS

In 2007 I completed my first marathon, Deseret New Classic Marathon. Two months after completing my first marathon, I decided to run in the Top of Utah Marathon. I loved running distance so much, that I wondered how many other marathons there were around Utah, and it was then I was introduced to the world of the Ultramarathon.

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In October of 2007, I ran and completed the Ogden Valley 50 miler. I not only completed a 50 miler, but also discovered that I was not as tired and sore after running 50 miles as I had been running marathons.

In 2009, my speed was getting better, and I signed up for more challenging mountain races. It was during an attempt at the Kat’cina Mosa 100K that I started noticing some odd things about my running. In the heat of the August summer, I ran out of water on a difficult 9-mile stretch of the race, and became seriously dehydrated. Making it difficult to traverse down the mountain I experienced dizziness, hallucinations, and made it to the aid station 1 hour after the cut off time. I was completely defeated and demoralized, because it was my first time not being able to finish a race.

In May of 2009 I attended a Global Eating Disorder Conference, and listened to a presentation by Dr. Elizabeth Joy. After hearing her presentation, I knew she might be able to figure out what was wrong with me. I had started having issues with my blood sugar. I also started dealing with increasingly extreme fatigue. By the time that I ended the May 2010 school year I could barely get out of bed. After seeing Dr. Joy in June, she immediately suspected that I had POTS syndrome. She ran several blood tests on me, and the only one that came back positive was a norepinephrine test showing that I had a pretty good case of androgenic POTS. Dr. Joy told me that what I was doing, running (to increase my blood circulation), increasing salt intake, and caffeine 100mg in the morning was about the best I could do for POTS, and she discouraged me from using a Beta Blocker, which is used in some POTS patients, because she was afraid it would interfere with my distance running.

I was able to complete one 50 miler in June, by putting scaps in my hydration pack and drinking Coconut water. During that race my nutritionist told me to try taking 1500mg of sodium per hour, which was about twice what is recommended for a normal person. I completed the race, but still had difficulty and was still hyponatremic after the race. After that race I ended up in the ER three times needing IV fluids to stabilize, and having more blood sugar issues. When you have POTS, every morning when you wake up, it’s like you have the flu. The one way to get over the symptoms for me was to make myself move past it and get my blood circulating, then the flu symptoms would be not as bad when I was moving.

My nutritionist had me increase both my potassium and sodium intake to 10,000 mg potassium daily and 5,000mg of sodium daily on days I was not active. Over a couple of months of taking a lot of supplements and slowly making myself return to exercise, I was able to reduce my need for sleep to 12-14 hours per day instead of 20 hours per day, and I attempted a couple of races.

In August of 2010 I again attempted Kat’cina Mosa. I started out OK following the high sodium regimen, but on the most difficult climb of the race, suffered a severe hyperglycemic episode. I had to quit at mile 46. After Kat’cina Mosa, my body was very tired, and I started my second year of graduate school demoralized, and sick.  I needed at least 12 hours of sleep per night. I managed to struggle my way through Grad school. I attempted the Wasatch 100 in September, but had to drop at mile 18, and it was the most difficult year of POTS in 2010-2011. However, slowly but surely with perseverance and strict adherence to nutritional needs, I started to be able to do things again, and tolerate running. In January of 2011, even though I was still pretty sick, I was able to summit Mount Kilimanjaro, and completed a Snowshoe 50K that same month.

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 Through a lot of training and effort, I have started completing ultramarathons again in 2014. In January I completed a Snowshoe 50k, I was slow, but I finished! In March I attempted a 100 miler on Antelope, and was only able to make 62/100 miles, but that was the furthest distance I have ever completed, so it was a win. Then I completed the Squaw Peak 50 in June of 2014. I had difficulty with some POTS symptoms in the heat and was slow after mile 33, but I finished! And then there was Kat’cina, I felt OK for the most part, but had difficulty on some of the hill climbs with speed, and my heart rate, and it slowed me down. I was rushing to try to get to the cut off at Little Valley by 4:30, but fell and hurt my back on the way down. I was devastated, because I wanted to finish this year so badly, but reflecting, I realize my speed still is increasing, I did not get dehydrated, and my blood sugar stayed stable.

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My next challenge to overcome with POTS is increasing heat tolerance, and increasing my ability to tolerate hill climbs and increase my speed. I dream of it someday, being able to be fast climbing hills again. I visualize it every day. I am faster every year, and yes I still have POTS, but it is not dictating my life.

Some things that I’ve learned from POTS:

To read more about POTS go to: http://www.dysautonomiainternational.org/page.php?ID=30

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2 responses to “Running Ultramarathons with POTS: Recovering Strength And Endurance {Living With POTS series}”

  1. Kristen @ Glitter and Dust says:
    August 13, 2014 at 10:21 am

    WOW, you are such an inspiration and it’s amazing how much you have overcome and accomplished even with the challenge of living with POTS. I think it is so admirable that you didn’t let it slow you down or give up on your dreams, but instead you learned from it and are teaching others. What a great story you have…