The Western States Endurance Run will be supporting two medical research studies this year.

Study #1: Examining the Effects of Body Composition and Body Fluid Changes on Exercise Performance

All participants in the WS100 2008 event are welcome to be a part of a research study conducted by the UC Davis Sports Medicine Program. Participation is completely voluntary and you are not required to participate. There will be no written informed consent to sign at the event and each participant will be identified only by their race number.

What will be tested?

• Body Composition: The use of a bioelectric impedence device made by ImpediMed (www.impedimed.com) will be used for this procedure. You will lie down on a mat and several tape electrodes will be placed on your arms, legs, hands and feet. These electrodes will be connected to the ImpediMed device by wire leads and a very small current (the size of a flashlight battery), will be conducted between the electrodes. This will allow the device to calculate your percent body fat and body water content. We will also make electrical measurements of your legs to determine the amount of muscle mass in your legs.
• Body Height and Weight: Standard scales and devices will be used to calculate your height and weight.
• Thigh and Calf circumference: Tape measures will be used to measure the size of both of your thighs and calves and relate these measurements to your leg muscle mass.
• We also encourage you to get the post race blood draw offered by the race medical staff so we can relate body fluid changes to blood sodium levels as a way to measure if you took in enough fluids.

The information gathered before the race will be used to correlate with your race finish results. This will allow us to give conclusions about the body composition of competitive and successful trail ultra-endurance runners, which has not been done in the past. This may lead to explanations for why ultra-endurance trail running athletes have different types of bodies than other running athletes and may lead to training guidelines for the future. The information will also help us determine how many athletes drink the right amount of liquids to prevent fluid related illnesses.

For participation in the research study you will receive a race research T-shirt and will be given a copy of your results immediately after the measurements.

Study #2: Examination of Cardiac Function following a 100 Mile Running Race

A depression in cardiac function has been observed in trained individuals following prolonged endurance exercise. In addition a number of studies have shown that cardiac stress proteins are released following prolonged exercise, and that blood pressure control is also altered. Following on from our data collection in 2007 this year’s study is designed to examine whether the depression in cardiac function and the release of cardiac stress proteins is related to age.

Participants will be those volunteering and each of the following procedures will be performed the day prior to the race, and where indicated, again on immediate completion of the race and once more during the recovery period (4-6 hrs following race completion). Runners must be able to attend at least the first and second testing sessions, abstain from alcohol during the 12 hours before testing and be aged between 18 and 60.

What will be tested?

• Pre-race questionnaire and informed consent (pre-race).
• Anthropometric measurements: height, age (pre-race) weight (pre-race, post-race and during recovery).
• Assessment of resting blood pressure using an inflatable rubber cuff and stethoscope (pre-race, post-race and during recovery).
• Non-Clinical cardiac examination (echocardiography): this uses ultrasound technology to enable a non-invasive and painless assessment of cardiac function. During this examination you will be required to lie on a bed in a resting state (~10 minutes in duration) (pre-race, post-race and during recovery).
• During the cardiac examination heart rate will be monitored with an electrocardiogram (ECG. Sympathetic nervous system activity will be assessed non-invasively with heart rate variability (HRV) during rest periods at each testing session. HRV is a tool used for evaluating the relative contributions of the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the autonomic nervous system. 3 electrodes will be attached to the runner’s shoulders (2) and hip (1) while they lie resting on their back for 10 minutes.
• Blood sampling: a small blood sample (10ml) will be collected from a vein in the forearm (this will be done in exactly the same way a physician would normally take a sample of blood) (pre-race, post-race and during recovery).

I’ve signed up - just hope my heart is still beating at the end!