trying the link to the full article again...
view link
sadly, in the last Detroit Free Press Marathon a couple of weeks ago, 3 runners died within 16 minutes of each other......2 were relatively young ( 26 & 36) and one was 65.
The question I guess is "died of what" and did the train properly and discuss the run with there doctor to make sure they could physically do it?? I never knew I had a heart murmur until I had a seizure and they spent 4 days in the Hospital trying, to no avail, to find out what caused me to have the seizure.
Wolfie
Yes, the body is built for distance! That is why we invented airplanes!
26 miles in less than three or four hours seems a bit long but I am sure that our bodies were created to keep moving far more than most of us move today.
I would think that men should be able to maintain a five mile per hour rate of speed for most of the day. (That is a lot longer than 26 miles, but it is not constant running.)
I think if we walked 26 miles everyday, we would be very healthy. I think the heart could be trained to do a marathon every other day, but I do not think the feet, knees, and hips were designed for that much constant pounding.
The key is consistantcy. One should do whatever he does at least twice a week. (Every week.)
Resting for six months, and then training for a Marathon, seems to be asking for trouble. The heart should be able to depend on regular exercise.
Will some people have heart attacks due to some defect in the heart that might never have been a problem if they did not work hard? Yes, absolutely. However, the question is,---Is that a bad thing? Is a quick painless death really worse than a slow agonizing death? Would you rather live a long boring life? Or would you rather live life to it's fullest and go quickly?
My guess is that God created us with the ability to walk long distances, and to run when something is chaseing us. (Or when we are after something to eat.)
Ask a hunter how hard it is to carry a deer out of the woods and he will tell you that it takes not only great leggs, but upper body strength as well. I think we were created to do this type of work.
Michael
Off topic... "Lucinda" is a beautiful name! If I had had a daughter, I wanted to name her Lucinda! (Had a son instead.)
Running a marathon (and training for one) DOES lead to wear and tear on the joints, but some of us who DO run marathons are still in better shape than we'd be if we DIDN'T! I had 2 knee surgeries before I even started training for a marathon, and I've had 3 more knee surgeries since then! However, my ortho surgeon told me to keep on running since the arthritis in my knees due to the scar tissue from the surgeries, aging, and whatever else, is much better than it would be if I wasn't running because the running starts lubricating the joints soon after I start to run, and then any pain I have when I start running is gone.
Re the 3 Detroit Marathon Deaths, we've had a discussion about that in some of the other groups I'm in, and here is some of the info I had posted in those groups.
It seems kind of scary to me that two men died in almost the same place within a fairly short time of each other. This is one marathon or half marathon I want to do before I pass on since it's in my hometown. I started training for it two years ago, but all the very long training runs were in the hot summer months, and I finally decide it wasn't worth it at that time since I would be training by myself. If I had been training with a group like I did for the Chicago Marathon (which takes place about the same time as the Detroit Marathon) I wouldn’t have minded running in the terrible heat here in Houston!
I would hope that there weren't any "sick puppies" at the Water/Gatorade station between the 11 and 13 mile part of the route. If the men who died had stopped to hydrate, might someone have laced the water or gatorade?
Since I was doing the Houston Half Marathon one week later, I was debating whether to carry my own hydration belt, but I decided not to since I wanted to carry my camera, and that would have just been too much weight around my waist! All went well in the Houston Half Marathon, and there were no deaths, and the added bonus for me was that I received a first place age group award in the 70 - 74 age group! I've added a few photos from the Houston Half Marathon in the Photo Center here.
A doctor here in Houston, Dr. Bob Hoekman, who also writes articles for "INSIDE TEXAS RUNNING" magazine, sent out this information about those 3 deaths a day or two after the Detroit Half Marathon: The death of the 65 year old is the easiest to explain due to age and gender. In addition, it is reported he had asbestosis which increases risk.
The 38 year old man is typically fairly low risk with age and gender but I know nothing about his previous health, family history etc.
The 26 year old male is most unusual and I have to believe until proven otherwise that he had a cardiac birth defect or electrical conduction defect in his heart. Autopsy results are pending at this point of course.
Statistically having three cardiac events in one race is extraordinary. Having all three be non responsive to a defibrillator is even more extraordinary. With typical ventricular fibrillation and the speed of access to care described we would expect 80+% success. That is altered if we are dealing with birth defects or electrical conduction defects of congenital nature.
It will be very interesting to follow this and see the official toxicology results which won't be available for weeks.
Then a few days later this was an update I saw on the internet: 3 DETROIT MARATHON RUNNERS WHO DIED WERE HEALTHY
Detroit, Oct 20 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Three competing runners who died in the Detroit Marathon while participating, are now being described as healthy by friends and family. Though there were emergency medical services on the Marathon route, and reports suggest that the medical personnel reached the scene within seconds, yet the 3 competitors sadly collapsed and died soon after.
According to medical personnel, the autopsies were inconclusive on Monday on the bodies of Rick Brown, 65, of Marietta, Ohio; Daniel Langdon, 36, of Laingsburg in central Michigan; and Jonathan Fenlon, 26, of Waterford, northwest of Detroit. The Wayne County medical examiner has now requested for toxicology tests.
All three died just near the finish line. Friends and family of the dead men said they had trained extensively for the 13.1-mile race and were in great shape health-wise.
“This is definitely atypical. In a given year, you’re looking at four to six deaths,” said Ryan Lamppa, a researcher for Colorado Springs-based nonprofit Running USA. “Some years are higher. Some years are lower.”
There are about 0.8 deaths for every 100,000 runners who complete a marathon, Lamppa said. He said he did not immediately know the rate of death for overall participants in full or half marathons.
“Almost all of the runner deaths we hear about, it’s always described as he or she is in great health,” said Jean Knaack, executive director of Arlington, Va.-based Road Runners Club of America, a nonprofit promoting long distance running.
I heard on NPR the other day that the human body (providing they are in shape) can run farther than any other animal on earth., In comparison to animals though, we suck when we sprint.
