2 deaths at Comrades Marathon - Safe and effective?

GOOD I WANT MORE

This sport is the extreme test of cardiovascular fitness. There are going to be people who push themselves too hard and their deaths legitimize the risk portfolio that we all take on when we head to the starting line. Especially in ultras. People here want running to be this pristine activity that takes place primarily on grass, packdirt trails, and tracks with nice shoes and perfect gear - that's just not it. This sport kills people all the time and I'm tired of acting like it doesn't. Marathon des Sables had a guy fail out this year, too, if I remember correctly.

Go for a run today and make sure their deaths aren't in vain.

Uhhh a "paved road" AND an ultra = a deadly combination. What a bunch of BS.

The Gansu 100k was on trails, with 21 dead maybe trail running is more dangerous?
Of course that is BS too. I still can't comprehend why so many died there but I can imagine it was a bad combination of very bad weather, unprepared athletes and organizers.

Update: I looked it up. Apparently, twice before, two runners have died in one year when running Comrades so two deaths, while tragic, are not outside the past range. Potassium level was at least part of the problem in one of these earlier deaths.

Good attempt but that's not how statistics work. You can't just say oh this is more than the average must be non-random.

Good attempt but that's not how statistics work. You can't just say oh this is more than the average must be non-random.

Can we agree that if you post this a third time, then that's not random?

Interestingly

bmj.com

Competing risks of mortality with marathons: retrospective analysis

Objective To determine from a societal perspective the risk of sudden cardiac death associated with running in an organised marathon compared with the risk of dying from a motor vehicle crash that might otherwise have taken p...

Open link

Clinicians interested in preventing sudden cardiac death may be surprised by the low risk associated with marathon running. The rate we observed was significantly below that reported from research on small samples provoked by signal events (1/50 000)3233343536; smaller than the risk of any type of crash associated with driving 42 km (1/15 000)37; and about the same as the baseline hourly risk of death for a middle aged man.

Three weeks ago my nephew and his wife lost their baby girl. She was born with an enlarged heart and died at two days old. Both parents (both nurses) were vaccinated and Mom was boosted during pregnancy. Husbands co-worker, healthy 50 year old died two weeks after his second shot while mountain bike riding, heart attack. Yes people die but if you’re denying these shots aren’t hurting and killing people you’re either blinded by politics or plain dumb.

For all we know training for this event saved some lives. Maybe a few people would have died in car accidents had they not showed up. There are plenty of people who aren’t dead that aren’t living.

Let us see the population wide statistics, the plural of anecdote is not data.

First time I ran Marine Corps some dude had a heart attack and died when they fired the cannon to start the race.

If so, that means 8 deaths in 94 runnings prior to 2 deaths this year.

Can you provide the source? I could not find anything on this

Another poster claimed 8 deaths in total prior to this year.

Given there were 94 or 95 races pre this year, it would seem highly unlikely that, if the total deaths in pre 2022 races is 8, 4 of those occurred in two races.

Still clinging to the pro vax narrative?

What will it take?

Actual, proper, population wide data that either vaccines don't work or are more dangerous than the disease they are saving people from dying of. As neither exists then anti vaxxers are just another set of sad, delusional, probably mentally ill people.

I know you guys like to speculate about the vaccine but why does everyone here think that entire populations getting Covid over and over again is totally safe and will not increase such cardiac events?

It makes no sense. I fully acknowledge that there was also a myocarditis problem with the Moderna vaccine and men under 40. But that presents soon after vaccination. Many have been vaccinated more than a year ago. But what they might have had much more recently is Covid. They might not even have realized they had it.

With a high disease burden on your population an increase in adverse events overall is exactly what you'd expect. I am neither obsessively pro-vaccine because there are risk and every individual should have their choice but the crazy anti-vax on this site is out of control too. Please get a grip.