Sympathies to all involved. I’m shocked that this could happen at a half marathon. I guess it’s a long distance for slower runners
The distance is the same for all runners. It is a long distance for fast runners too.
Actually no, it isn't. I (we) don't know anything about the runner's exercise/running habits. I know people (Hobby Joggers to letsrun) who run 2-3 miles a few days a week maybe run a long run but at a pace that's basically walking and then run 1/2's and fulls just because their friends convinced them to because you HAVE to do a 1/2 marathon!!!
They blame "running". It's not running, if it were more people, especially the elites in the Olympic Marathons, would be dying.
Unfortunately these deaths and medical emergencies are pretty common in hot spring races. Same thing happened in a spring half marathon in chicago around 2011. I know I've heard other stories as well.
For the letsrun crowd, being in stellar shape doesn't necessarily make you immune. This guy ran 1:40, and the runner who died in Chicago was even faster, as I remember. It's not like these are overweight people running 3 hours for the half.
You should be extra vigilant in a hot spring race, even if you're really good shape. I'm all for toughness and gutting it out, but there's a real danger in these conditions. This is one situation where I would feel no shame dropping out. Salazar said he was never the same after the duel in the sun.
Very sad. I hope this discussion can incorporate some of the physiologic effects of training as well as preventative measures to identify those individuals who are at increased risk of sudden cardiac death related to exercise (eg. those individuals with unrecognized [congenital] hypertrophic cardiomyopathy).
Been saying for a long time we need to have EKGs and echocardiograms included in standard physical examinations. Too many young lives are being lost to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and occult arrhythmia like Brugada.
My thoughts as well. I’m not sure though how cost-effective it will be getting an echo for everyone but at least an EKG. Hopefully our sports med and cardiology groups can come with a standardized approach (for who gets an echo) so we are missing less of these essentially ticking time bombs.
My guess is cardiac arrest due to arrhythmia from dehydration. Temp started at 70F and 83% humidity. A number of years ago, I ran a 15k in PA, same conditions, was holding second and dropped out at 5k as I just wasn't feeling well. Glad I did, too, as would have been trashed by the end and the finishers did not look too good either.
The deceased runner was in Wave 1, which started at 7:00 AM (to be precise, the gun was 2 minutes later than scheduled). He finished around 8:44 AM. As listed at the timeanddate.com link, fog persisted through at least 9:51 AM, so sun was not an issue.
Really sad any time something like this happens. I'm not a doctor so will let those more qualified speak on if there are ways to ID who might be at risk for something like this to happen to them.
What I will say is that we haven't gotten mornings too much above 50 degrees & then it just jumps to 70 & humid at the start of this one. I feel like the majority of runners say that they would rather run on a warm day versus a cooler one. The majority of runners are also undertrained & probably haven't gone over 10 miles in training. Now, they need to make a pace adjustment & make sure their fueling plan is sound. That's a lot to ask for without the experience to know how to adjust in bad conditions.
So I would look to the race to be the guide here. I don't know what they did or didn't do. Usually they have some sort of color code & it was probably set to a color that indicates difficult conditions. But it needs to go deeper than that. Emails about how to adjust pace, how running in the heat/humidity affects heart rate, etc. Start time could've been adjusted. Back of the packers didn't start until after 8am when the fastest runners are pretty much done.
Perfect recipe for disaster when you catch a July morning in May. We don't see lows in the 70s until July. Everyone has been training in much cooler weather. June usually floats some mornings in the 50s, & a lot in the 60s. Nobody had time to adjust.
What I will say is that we haven't gotten mornings too much above 50 degrees & then it just jumps to 70 & humid at the start of this one. I feel like the majority of runners say that they would rather run on a warm day versus a cooler one. The majority of runners are also undertrained & probably haven't gone over 10 miles in training. Now, they need to make a pace adjustment & make sure their fueling plan is sound. That's a lot to ask for without the experience to know how to adjust in bad conditions.
So I would look to the race to be the guide here. I don't know what they did or didn't do. Usually they have some sort of color code & it was probably set to a color that indicates difficult conditions. But it needs to go deeper than that. Emails about how to adjust pace, how running in the heat/humidity affects heart rate, etc. Start time could've been adjusted. Back of the packers didn't start until after 8am when the fastest runners are pretty much done.
Aside from those that train in the morning before sunrise, the last two weeks have been warm enough for some acclimation, and humidity was higher on several days. There was also a heat wave in the middle of April.
NYRR sent an email with heat-related tips, an introduction to the Event Alert System, and links to https://www.nyrr.org/run/guidelines-and-procedures/stay-safe-in-the-heat at 5 PM on May 20, the day before the race. I think it would have been better a few days earlier, as soon as the weather forecast reached high confidence.
I read rumors that the EAS stayed at Green throughout. I thought that was okay for Wave 1 conditions. As you noted, Wave 2 started later and was still on the course when the sun broke through the fog.
Check out Chicago Marathon Oct 2007’ , that day was brutally warm and I believe a guy in his 30s died. They shut the race down half way through b/c too many runners were going down. It’s always sad to hear when a runner dies in a race. It’s very unfortunate.
The jab must have time-travelled. That's the only possible explanation.
A guy died in a marathon five years ago ergo the jab could have nothing to do with this death?
Overlooked question. It started at 7:30am according to the web. Weather stats show the temp was 63F with fog and 97% humidity.
According to news reports he was found at 9:00am.
According to timeanddate.com historic weather on May 21, 2022, the temperature at 9:51am was 67F, foggy (no sun), and 93% humidity.
Nope this is not accurate. I get 82F at 9AM with a dew point of 68F. Any dew point above 55 is uncomfortable and 68F is downright ridiculous. For comparison the next day the dew point will be 47F at 9AM. So not even close really. Dew point is the only important measure here. Everything above 60F in dew point is a soup and you can barely cool yourself.
Unfortunately these deaths and medical emergencies are pretty common in hot spring races. Same thing happened in a spring half marathon in chicago around 2011. I know I've heard other stories as well.
For the letsrun crowd, being in stellar shape doesn't necessarily make you immune. This guy ran 1:40, and the runner who died in Chicago was even faster, as I remember. It's not like these are overweight people running 3 hours for the half.
You should be extra vigilant in a hot spring race, even if you're really good shape. I'm all for toughness and gutting it out, but there's a real danger in these conditions. This is one situation where I would feel no shame dropping out. Salazar said he was never the same after the duel in the sun.
Anytime you get 22k people together statistically someone is going to have a heart attack. Happens at most baseball games.
Not true. Please don't just repeat something you heard somewhere sometime. The risk of a heart attack per person per year is 0.0032, based on US health data. Therefore if you get 22k people together for four hours, there is only a 3% chance that there will be even one heart attack. Also, only about 10% of heart attacks are fatal, so the chance of a fatal heart attack among 22k people in four hours is more like 0.3%.
Condolences to the runner’s near ones. Has an official cause of death been made public by the family?
I spoke with a doctor about determining the cause of death during a marathon/half.
He told me that blood chemistry degrades in minutes after death so the cause of heart-related problem causing death can't be determined unless there is a physical sign... a clot, an enlarged chamber of the heart, etc. It's just an educated guess.
Still, barring some physical sign, this was probably heat stroke/dehydration related.
The sad thing is that in the same heat and humidity in a fall half, most of these runners would have been okay because they would have acclimated by running in 80 degree weather for a few months.
Overlooked question. It started at 7:30am according to the web. Weather stats show the temp was 63F with fog and 97% humidity.
According to news reports he was found at 9:00am.
According to timeanddate.com historic weather on May 21, 2022, the temperature at 9:51am was 67F, foggy (no sun), and 93% humidity.
Nope this is not accurate. I get 82F at 9AM with a dew point of 68F. Any dew point above 55 is uncomfortable and 68F is downright ridiculous. For comparison the next day the dew point will be 47F at 9AM. So not even close really. Dew point is the only important measure here. Everything above 60F in dew point is a soup and you can barely cool yourself.
You are looking at today’s values. Toggle the date/time.
Here’s another link. It was not 82F at 9am at that location.