Surrey ultrarunner shares near death experience
Flawed hydration advice left Sophie Power in a coma and fighting for her life
An ultramarathon runner from Surrey has shared her near death experience after being given flawed hydration advice.
Sophie Power from Guildford nearly died during a 235km race in Cambodia in 2012.
Since then, she has not only broken multiple records but also represented Great Britain at the European and World Championships in 2022 and 2023, using her experiences to ensure that female athletes receive the correct advice to perform safely and at their best.
While competing in the 235k Ancient Khmer Path ultra, she was advised to drink up to six litres of water a day, which was excessive for her size. This misguided advice led to a dangerous drop in her sodium levels and resulted in brain swelling and a subsequent coma:
"I nearly lost my life. I was encouraged to drink an entire bladder pack before I got to each aid station, but because I was leading the race, I didn't have that long between each aid station. This was excessive for my size.
“I remember trying to finish the water, and it was hot and humid and combined with some very weak salt tablets which I wasn’t properly taking because I didn’t understand them, my sodium concentration went down to 108 when it is supposed to be 130.
“I collapsed into a coma and was airlifted by helicopter to intensive care."
Since her near fatal experience, Sophie sought advice from some of the world’s leading experts in hydration and fuelling to better understand the concentration of sodium in her sweat.
Do men and women sweat differently?
Some studies have shown that women may be at a greater risk of exercise-induced hyponatremia. Several different analyses of the data have reported incidences of hyponatremia being greater in women than men.
But this risk has been attributed to their lower body weight and size, as well as longer racing times relative to men, rather than their sex and different physiological responses.
A study conducted on participants at the 2002 Boston Marathon emphasised this point. It found 13% of finishers were hyponatraemic and the majority of those were women. The apparent sex difference disappeared when the data was adjusted for body mass index and racing times though.
Research has also highlighted that there may be subtle changes in fluid and sodium balance across a women’s menstrual cycle.
For Sophie, more needs to be done in sport to specifically focus on women, with only 6% of research in sport science and medicine conducted in 2020 focused exclusively on females, an argument which has already gained traction in the sporting community.
She said: “Only a small percentage of sports studies focus on female bodies, and I believe changing this is crucial to understand the unique physiological differences faced by women in endurance sport and encourage more women to participate in sport.”