The guy (severely dehydrated runner) in the Gatorade commercial....

Factual Questions
1

Can someone I.D. the man in the Gatorade commercial who is barely able to finish a (triahtolon?) race and is on all fours and wobbly. They mention that he is extremely dehydrated and the result of that is his loss of muscular/nervous control. 'Course Gatorade would have alleviated all that had he been drinking it at the time.

Something tells me this happened in the mid '80’s and that the guy suffered permanent damage (brain/spinal cord?) as a result, but this is just from some vague recollection that I have.

Can someone shed more info on this guy? I’m interested in info detailing what happened during that part of the race (like was he in the lead when it happened, did he finish the race, and what place he took) and whether or not he made a full recovery.

Thanks much.

2

This site has some info. The runner is Chris Legh, and it was an Ironman race in 1997. He did not finish the race, but he did eventually recover. He won an Ironman race in 2004.

3

upon preview see’s I’ve been beaten to the punch

However, my research over at Gatorade’s really annoying website has caused me to discover they now make an “endurance formula” which I might just have to try on my long runs. So it wasn’t for nothing!

4

Shoot! I was so distraught I threw in an unnecessary apostrophe.

:: hangs head in shame ::

5

there’s a video on this page:

http://www.tridubai.com/news/news_ChrisLeghAd.htm

6

The site I linked to says that he was taken into surgery and that many of his organs had stopped worked. I’m really curious about the specifics there.

7

working