Dysuria

Question
Hello My name is Sam.  I would like to start out by saying thank you for taking the time to use your expertise and knowledge to answer peoples questions.  I have a small backgound in the practice of emergency medicine.  I have been working full time as a paramedic for the past year.  I had four years previous experience as an EMT prior to paramedic school.  However, my question doesn't really fall into the realm of "emergency," and I was wondering if you can help me out.  Today is early evening on Tuesday.  I ran a marathon (26.2 miles) on Sunday.  The weather was very hot for marathon running at about 85-90 degrees.  My training runs for the past six months have been in cooler weather (35-60 degrees).  Therefore, my performance (I feel) was hindered by the constant struggle to stay hydrated.  There were water and gatorade stops at every mile.  But, instead of fininshing in the estimated time of five hours I ended up taking just under seven.  About half way through the marathon I started to get thirsty even though I had stopped at every water stop.  I didn't think much of it because it was hot even though some say you are already dehydrated if you become thirsty.  So, I made an extra effort to continue hydrating all the way through.  The problem that I noticed around the same time in the race was that I had the urge to urinate but could not produce urine.  I stopped about four more times throughout the race and had the same problem.  I would have the urge to urinate but only small drops of dark urine would come out and it was slightly painful.  Well I took these signs (with my limited knowledge) to mean there was a good chance I was dehydrated.  I finished the race and felt pretty sore and tired but nothing else was alarmingly different than normal.  However, it has been two days and I am still having some pain on urination.  The difference is that I am producing normal urine output with normal color and no blood evident(There was never any blood).  The pain is the only thing that has continued.  I admit that I haven't been drinking as much water as I should've since sunday.  So, my question is concerning the pain on urination.  Is this considered normal given the recent events?  Could it be related to dehydration?  Are there any other possible causes that come to mind? I should also mention that I don't have any other medical problems that I know of.  I know you can't give medical advice due to liability and I have already thought that I will wait a few more days to see if things get better.  Do you think this is a bad idea?
Thanks,

Sam  

Answer
Sam:

First of all my background is not in the medicine dept. so I would suggest you see your family doctor.  It does sound however that you became hydrated.  You may have been drinking, however just not enough liquid.  Remember, you were out there for 7 hours which is a very long time and need to hydrate well keeping in mind not to overhydrate.  I would see my doctor just to be safe.  Sorry I couldn't be of more help, but I have never experienced this personally


Congrats on your marathon, you should be proud
margie :-)