The other night, I was out at the club that I frequent when something really strange happened- I almost passed out. It wasn't because I was drunk, or from some other weird medical condition. The reason behind it was that it was simply too hot and I was way dehydrated. The interesting part about the whole thing is that while it was happening, I felt really good.

The evening started on a strange note. Instead of me downing a soda and several waters before I went out, I was asked to dance even before I had finished my first beverage. Besides the obvious shock of being asked to dance, I certainly didn't hydrate my body enough for what would become an evening of marathon sweating (whoa, I'm getting excited here).

I stepped out on the dancefloor with only a few other people and tore into it. After awhile, I kept thinking that I would be getting tired, but I kept on going anyway. People filtered on and off the floor, but I stayed out for over an hour before needing a bit of water. I wasn't that tired yet, but I was feeling a bit parched. I went up and got a water and refilled it 2 times while I stood by the floor watching people. After chilling out for about fifteen minutes, I again stepped out and started grooving my noodle.

By this time, it was about 11:15, and people were pouring in the door. The dancefloor started getting more and more crowded, and thus, the temperature also started going up a bit. I had already cracked a sweat long ago, but now it was really getting warm. I reached over and touched my shirt and felt that it was almost completely soaked with sweat (a clean sweat, mind you). My face was slick and my hair was saturated as well. The beats lept on, though, and the floor eventually started overflowing. By this time, I found myself right in the middle of the pack. Even if I wanted to, it would have taken a fair amount of effort to shove myself out of the sea of sweaty bodies and over to a chair.

After about a half hour of this, I started feeling a bit tired again, but it soon passed. I seemed to reach one of those 'runners highs' that I had always heard about happening. I guess I had jiggled my body around so much that it simply numbed down. I looked around the floor and became lost amid the mass of gyrating bodies and quivering lights. I felt light-headed and almost a bit dizzy, but I heard the bartenders shout out last call and knew that it would all be ending soon anyway.

When the lights came on and the music stopped, my body just sort of followed suit. For a moment, I just stood where I had been dancing and watched people grab their coats and finish the rest of their drinks. My pants and shirt felt like wet cling-wrap and I could feel drops of sweat (a clean sweat, mind you) falling off my hair and onto the back of my neck. My ears were ringing just a bit, but otherwise I felt really good. My body felt light and completely depleted, as if I had just completed an intense workout. My breath was even and my heart was still clicking along at a fairly rapid pace. When I finally started walking to get my coat, my feet felt lighter than normal and my gait had a strange glide to it. I went home and slept better than I had in a long time and decided the next day that I would have to do the whole thing again more often.

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