With the grueling THON 2015 experience set to begin, 708 people will put their bodies through the proverbial wringer this weekend.
Those 708 dancers will essentially be running a 46-hour marathon, or at least it will feel like it once they’ve stood and danced without sleep for nearly two whole days.
The dance marathon kicks off at 6 p.m. Friday and runs until 4 p.m. on Sunday. Those dedicated dancers will be raising money as part of an annual tradition that’s contributed $114 million to the fight against pediatric cancer — so far.
Excitement is the most common feeling among dancers, supporters, volunteers, and most importantly Four Diamonds Fund families, who have children battling pediatric cancer. But in addition that excitement comes a feeling of nervousness for many dancers, who know that a life-changing, yet physically and mentally trying, weekend lies ahead.
Those 46 hours of sleep deprivation and the physical effort of dancing will take a toll over the course of the dance marathon.
“There are many effects, and in the case of THON, they would be short term. However, sleep deprivation chronically can result in depression, weight gain, insulin resistant, among other things,” says Alison Borkowska, a nutritional sciences professor at Penn State. “Lots of rest after the event can help counteract the negative effects of sleep deprivation, as well as lots of protein to combat muscle fatigue.”
THON has meals planned for dancers that will be served on the Bryce Jordan Center floor throughout the weekend in order to help counteract many of the concerns about the dancers’ physical well being.
When it comes to specific foods and food groups, Borkowska says THON is a “carb-loading situation.” Some of the healthiest foods that are high in carbohydrates include vegetables, legumes, beans, nuts, seeds, whole grain breads, fresh fruit, and low-fat dairy items.
Carb-loading is a dietary practice that many endurance athletes utilize prior to and during lengthy events. Carobohydrates help maximize the storage of glycogen, a form of glucose, in muscles. This is converted to energy and can help fight the fatigue that comes with such a lengthy physical effort.
“Try to eat carbohydrates but not too much at one time to prevent the ‘food coma.’ Small amounts of food throughout the event,” Borkowska says. “Chocolate milk would be a great carb/protein for the night. Carbohydrate loading will help, as well as getting hydrated, but this is an extreme event– so if you have fatigue, take a rest.”
Borkowska adds that dehydration is a serious concern for dancers as well. She recommends drinking plenty of water. The combination of dehydration, sleep deprivation, and physical weakness is known to result in issues ranging from fainting to mild hallucinations and delirium.
Back in 1987, Ken Shaffer, a Penn State graduate and two-time THON dancer in medical school at Johns Hopkins University, returned to his alma mater to study dancers in the marathon. Specifically, Shaffer and three colleagues were interested in investigating sleep deprivation.
They found that dancers became disillusioned over the course of the weekend, suffering from minor memory loss, mild visual and auditory hallucinations, and general confusion, according to the 2002 issue of THON Magazine. Shaffer said that the most common hallucinations that THON dancers suffered were mirror images of people, mirrors coming up from the floor, and seeing people as two-dimensional figures.
Ally Greer danced at THON 2012, and though she didn’t see any two-dimensional creatures roaming the Bryce Jordan Center, she did experience the typical severe exhaustion, which she said hits in levels and ranges based on the amount of activity in the arena.
“I would say I didn’t start to feel anything until around 10 hours in. It’s the middle of the night and a lot of people are gone. That’s when I started getting emotional,” Greer says. “Then you kind of know when it’s morning cause families start coming back, and you realize that it’s only Saturday morning and you’re not even close to halfway. That realization made me tired even if I wasn’t.”
The more tired she was, the more unaware and claustrophobic she became. Greer says she spent a lot of time in Dancer Storage — a quiet area off of the arena floor where dancers keep clothes and belongings — during the pep rally “because it was very crowded, loud, and overwhelming. At that point it’s late Saturday and I barely knew what was going on and all I wanted to focus on was at staying awake.”
Greer says that she was absolutely delirious at some points, prompting her to cry when a friend brought her a bag of pretzels. The physical toll was challenging too as her feet became painful to deal with after standing for so many hours.
She also felt physically sick for a few hours toward the end, but forced herself to eat in order to keep going. Greer says that peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were a great snack.
But through all of the emotion, tears, smiles, mental tiredness, and physical fatigue over the 46 hours, Greer said that nothing helped her get through the marathon more than having people around for encouragement.
“Throughout the entire time, you really lean on your friends, family, and even strangers,” she says. “Literally and metaphorically.”
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