We are going through July , heading for August with training for high school and younger sports getting underway, mainly in the areas of football, cross country, volleyball, and golf. Caution lights are out.
Heat can be deadly.
Lots of folks have heard about the recent and untimely death of former Razorback star and Super Bowl champion Mitch Petrus. The 32-year-old was a well-known All-SEC lineman and played for the Super Bowl Champion New York Giants as well as the New England Patriots and Tennessee Titans before retiring in 2014.
A native of Carlisle, east of Little Rock, Petrus was a walk-on after a standout high school career albeit in Arkansas' smallest school classification. Known for his hard work, he was working outside his family business in Carlisle in hot and humid conditions when he fell ill and later died at a North Little Rock hospital. He died from heat stroke.
Heat stroke works a lot like a sunburn. By the time you realize you are having one, there is not a lot you can do about it. I speak from personal experience.
I was a junior at Harding University in the fall of 1973 coming off what I thought was a pretty good year in cross country the year before.
I had run a 5-mile race in 25 minutes and I was raring to impress the coach with a good effort in a 7-mile run in early September that was known as the Heart Attack Hill Run.
The run was a 3.5-mile out and 3.5-mile back run with the last mile and a half before the turnaround, uphill all the way. It was a mid- afternoon in early September with temps in the mid-90s with a humidity to match.
I took off that day, determined to be the first one back to finish. The 2-mile run leading to the base of the Heart Attack Hill was difficult by itself, but the hill was a real challenge. There was a sign on this sandy road that forbade vehicles without four-wheel drives from even attempting the climb. At one point on this hill, it was so steep you could almost reach out and touch the ground while you were running.
Without walking, I made it all the way up that half-mile hill. I then had to run another mile with a slight uphill, just enough where you really couldn't catch your breath. Finally, I made the turnaround point and started back on a mostly downhill run which I thought would be easy.
It wasn't.
I was running along a mile or so from the finish when I thought I saw the coach and finish area. I decided to kick it in to impress the coach as I was way way ahead of the other runners. The problem was -- he wasn't there. Hallucination city. Then the road started bending and waving (it was an arrow straight road the last 2 miles) and I had a hard time not stumbling.
When I crossed the finish line and finally stopped running, 42 minutes later, I collapsed. I felt like someone had just turned a blow torch on me when I went down. Some people (it was all rather hazy to me so I never knew who) picked me up and sat me on the end of the van. After the blast of heat subsided, I felt like millions of little bugs were crawling all over me, and through all of this, I could not speak. I wanted to but my voice would not work. After the bug thing kind of stopped, then I felt cold waves all over. I don't remember much after that.
We were all transported back to the gym where we all weighed in, keeping track of how much moisture we had lost in the workout. Everyone lost some weight but I lost more than 7 pounds. I was wrung as dry as possible.
For the next two days, I drank everything I could get my hands on -- jugs of Gator Aid, cans of HiC, and lots and lots of water. My promising season was shot as my endurance and speed had left me, as it turned out, for the rest of the year. Though I didn't know it, I had suffered a heat stroke.
Just what is a heat stroke?
Your body has to maintain a core body temperature of 98.6 degrees. If your core gets too hot, blood diverts toward your skin to carry heat away from your vital organs. When moisture evaporates from your skin, it cools the body. How well this works depends on how well you are hydrated.
If it is a humid day, moisture has a tough time evaporating, raising your body temperatures and complicating your body's attempt at cooling. The body responds by diverting more blood to your skin away from the internal organs to dissipate the heat. In doing so, the internal organs then become oxygen starved which often leads to organ failure.
If the above process continues unabated, then a cardiac arrest or organ failure may occur which usually leads to death. Death can come through cardiac arrest or through brain damage which occurs when the heat jacks up blood pressure and stops blood to the brain. My inability to speak for awhile was due to brain disruption.
Those who survive a heat stroke often have nerve and tissue damage which will affect their ability levels. In my case, I became less quick and less durable for a long time. I can't say that I ever made it back athletically.
Mitch Petrus was a professional athlete who succeeded on the highest levels of his sport. He was just at home, working outside with likely the same hard working attitude he had exhibited all his life. The heat was more than his body could bear. The heat can be more that anyone's body can bear given the right conditions.
More than 650 people die of heat stroke every year according to government statistics. Well over 100,000 people a year in the U.S.A. have a heat illness that is not fatal. I made that column in 1973.
I was lucky to survive that September afternoon. The fact that I was in extremely good shape likely saved me but it was close. Because of that experience, if I ever have a heat stroke again my odds of survival are markedly lower, so I am careful in this kind of weather.
Anyone outside in hot weather needs to drink and drink a lot -- of water. Soda drinks and sport drinks will not stave off heat stroke. Water and good sense are the only things that matter.
July and August are the most dangerous months for heat-related illness. The danger for young athletes is to try to get into shape in a hurry in hot conditions. Work out in the coolest parts of the day when the weather is hot and humid, and keep hydrating. Just being outside in the weather we have had lately will pull moisture from you.
The loss of Mitch Petrus was a a big one. After his pro career, Petrus worked at sports radio stations as a commentator, he attended high school football games as a reporter. He played in a rock band, and was on TV from time to time owing to his very outgoing personality.
Petrus was a good guy, one of the best. His death made national news as he was known as much for who he was as how good an athlete he was. His life touched a lot of people, and at 32 years of age, he would have touched a lot more.
Heat-related illness is a disease we do to ourselves. It can sneak up on you. It doesn't have to happen if we are alert and prepared. Be that for yourselves and especially for your kids.
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Editor's note: John McGee, an award-winning columnist, sports writer and art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools, writes a regular sports column for The Times. The opinions expressed are those of the writer. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].
Sports on 07/24/2019