After many years of battling vomitting and other nasty stuff in his many long course races, Jamie managed to sweet talk his way up to the Gatorade Sports Science Institute in Barrington, IL. In late February he showed up at their door, determined to get some answer as to why his body rebells in any race over 2 hrs. While there, he was pinched, prodded, whipped and and abused until he could take it no longer (you buying this?).

Actually the good folks at Gatorade took great care of him. The topics of conversation over meals where a little strange but otherwise the staff did a wonderful job of making him feel comfortable and at home.

Day 1 consisted of; introductions to John Stofan and John Erica Smith, the two principal investigators, a tour of the facilities, a briefing on the testing protocals to be used, a weigh in, a short run test and a little bit of pinching and prodding. The last thing they did was send him off to his hotel with a large specimen collection basin and an even larger internal temperature gauge and instructions to fill one and swallow the other.

Day 2 began early with breakfast at the hotel and a last trip to the specimen collection basin. The testing began promptly when he arrived at the Institute with the idea that he was to ride a 1/2 IM(56 miles)on a Compu-trainer and then run a 1/2 Marathon(13.1 miles) on a treadmill, all in a tiny climate controlled room set at 85 degrees and 50% humidity.

He had been warned prior to arrival that the test was more a sensory deprivation test than anything else. As such, he had armed himself with a large collection of Angry Young Man music in an attempt to stave off the duldrums. The Bike test went well(in large part due to the music)and aside from staring at the same desert landscape until the image was burned into his retinaes he managed to complete it (less a few ounces of blood) well ahead of his wife's time!

A short transition ensued and then he was off for the 1/2 Marathon. By this point his body temperature was beginning to soar and regardless of how much he drank he couldn't fight it. Halfway through the run test, John Stofan came back into the room and stopped the test due to excess core temperature (much to Jamie's relief!)

Even with the premature termination of the the test, a lot of valuable information was obtained. The various samples were all analyzed and the conclusions are listed below:

1) Jamie does not like the heat!

2) Jamie's sweat rate is high-average at 1.5L/hr

3) His sweat has a fairly high salt content and his sodium loss is 2.8g/hr

4) Two hour+ rides on the Compu-trainer suck!

5) The vomitting was likely the result of trying to take in too many carbohydrates.

6) His high carbohydrate consumption was a result of his failure to account for carbs in drinks

7) Treadmill running after a long Compu-trainer sessions sucks even more!

Thanks to all the staff at Gatorade who made this possible! In particular, special thanks to Shauna Mullin, John Stofan, John Eric Smith and Kris Osterberg for their hard work.