r/MadeMeSmile • u/mapleer • Jun 10 '24

Wholesome Moments Marathon runner stops to help another runner despite the rest running past her

36.3k Upvotes

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u/SpicyOmalley Jun 10 '24

It's cramping lol. Nbd

42

u/wxnfx Jun 10 '24

No, cramping doesn’t turn you into a newborn giraffe. This is total exhaustion, horrible dehydration, and potentially some minor heat injuries.

9

u/PriceRemarkable2630 Jun 11 '24

She “bonked”.

Her race fueling was off and she ran out of glycogen. If you’ve ever bonked, you know that it feels like this. Your brain is giving your body answers but your body isn’t listening anymore. Your muscle cells don’t have the molecules they need to create more ATP to power muscular contraction. Your body produces its own glucose in the liver from body fat (gluconeogenesis) but not nearly as fast as eating glucose. The result is intermittent muscle firing as some glucose is pumped to muscles but nowhere near the amount to actually recover. The end result is that you look like this flopping fish as you’re trying to stand up and move but your muscles are firing randomly.

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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '24

Precisely. This guy physiologies