List of former elite runners who died of heart attacks

Jeff Drenth

Ric Sayre

David Kimani

Travis Landreth

Ryan Shea

Elite - and non elite - runners die at a lower incidence than the general population. This is what my doctor told me - if you're going to die of a heart attack, you'll die running. But you'll most likely die ten years after you would have if you hadn't run.

People with dangerous arrhythmias like Landreth and Shea are the only ones who died early because of running. Drenth is thought to be drug related by AW insiders.

A fellow Runner wrote:

Basically I'm trying to find out why this is happening to so many of them and how we can better help the younger generations.

Have there been that many of them? (I'm sincerely curious and interested, for very personal reasons.)

A surgeon recently reminded me about the death of Jim Fixx, whom he described as having been "the fittest person in the world." I suggested to him (rather gently, I think) that Fixx was not quite what many people seemed to think he was.

Sounds like you have good intentions, but please don't let this turn into a "my god, look at how many of these guys have heart problems" project. The incidence of heart problems in the general US population is high, and anyone with a basic understanding of epidemiology will tell you that just counting cases of something in a specific population is just about the lowest level of evidence out there, just barely trumping "I once knew a guy..." on the hierarchy of evidence.

To truly be instructive, you need to decide what exposure you're interested in: are you looking at distance running as a risk for heart disease, or specifically running a 2:20 marathon? That will affect the control group you need. Your controls should be similar in every respect to your cases, except the exposure of interest. Similar ages, gender mix, exposures, habits (especially smoking), etc.

dd wrote:

...To truly be instructive, you need to decide what exposure you're interested in: are you looking at distance running as a risk for heart disease, or specifically running a 2:20 marathon?...

I would be interested in this group as well, more specifically; not necessarily to compare against the general population but to compare amongst other endurance athletes.

I started running 70 plus mile weeks at age 15 and carried it through to age 22 and then a three year break and cranked it back up through age 28. Sprinkled in there was quite a bit of intensity; track work, hill repeats, numerous races, etc. Then I still raced quite frequently in the years past 28 in triathlon and road racing off fewer running miles but more training hours. I would categorize the running only efforts as more difficult than when I ran a lot. There is nothing more painful than racing when you're not very fit. This has not changed even into my 50's.

Much in the way we are starting to look at the long term effects concussions have on football players I would like to see the long term effects of a lifetime of exertion on heart health.

Of course we'd have to factor in vegetable oils and all the other ills in our current food supply. So at this stage of our Nation's ill health we may be past the point of an accurate study that could link anything meaningful.

Brian Maxwell, Power Bar founder, Canadian Olympian, third-ranked marathoner in the world in 1977.

A fellow Runner wrote:

Basically I'm trying to find out why this is happening to so many of them

Thank you

So many of them?

If this is your question, I believe the simple answer is that it has happened to a few of them, not "so many."

Bobby Doyle

http://www.nerunner.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=46CF6C7278B04C639264DF5D6E51A4CB&nm=&type=MultiPublishing&mod=PublishingTitles&mid=6EECC0FE471F4CA995CE2A3E9A8E4207&tier=4&id=130BDA2741B44EED90E6CD68CE00F25F

Larry Olson?

http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=18305

Ron Daws.

I agree with dd and Jefe about the general poor health of the nation and the lack of being able to do a true, controlled, epidemiological study, but excessive running does produce excessive free radical stress, probably causing a higher degree of inflammation. Many former greats have gone on to develop cancer at a fairly early age too. But our food and water supply is a big problem, as well as all the noxious shit we put into the atmosphere. I would just make sure I ate extremely healthy as a runner putting in the miles. Lots of fruits and veggies. The pizza, beer, and ice cream diet is a thing of the past or should be.

Ed Sheehan, 2:13 PR. Heart attack at the age of 46.

Before you go too far on this you should compare the percentage of elite runners who died young from heart problems with the percentage of the general population who died young from heart problems. My guess is those percentages are going to be quite close.

Sagarin wrote:

Many former greats have gone on to develop cancer at a fairly early age too.

But not at a higher rate than the rest of society. Statistics can't exist in a vacuum. The only studies on endurance athletes show them, statistically, to live longer than sedentary counterparts. All walks of life have heart attacks and get cancer. You can't blame those things on running.

A ton of men have heart attacks in their 50s and 60s, so finding examples retired runners with heart problems shouldn't be hard.

Same for cancer -- showing that some runners have cancer in their 50s doesn't prove much of anything.

I think there has been some discussion about long term distance running causing arrythmias, though. There was a threads on here about it at some point.

A fellow Runner wrote:

I am trying to put together a list of elite (sub 2:20?) guys from the boom/1970s and 1980s who have suffered from heart problems.

Basically I'm trying to find out why this is happening to so many of them and how we can better help the younger generations.

I don't think you can gather much information from this study. First, most of these guys are still too young to gather much data about heart disease. Second, you'd have to adjust for lifelong exercise after their competitive years to get an accurate comparison. Lifelong healthy exercise is likely to correlate more to reduced heart disease risk than whether or not the exerciser was a sub 2:20 marathoner 30 or 40 years ago. There are other variables, of course, but I'd guess that lifelong exercise would be near the top.

Bekele's fiance died of a heart attack on a training run at the age of 18.

A fellow Runner wrote:

Basically I'm trying to find out why this is happening to so many of them and how we can better help the younger generations.

2/10 since you snagged some people

"so many of them" - meaning what?

"better help the younger generation" - meaning what?

NBN wrote:

But not at a higher rate than the rest of society. Statistics can't exist in a vacuum. The only studies on endurance athletes show them, statistically, to live longer than sedentary counterparts. All walks of life have heart attacks and get cancer. You can't blame those things on running.

Is this essentially what I said? I didn't blame anything on running, other than "excessive" running probably does promote a greater degree of reactive oxygen species damage and inflammation on top of all the other crap we throw at our bodies. As such, I would eat copious quantities of quality food. Running to stay in shape and competitive running are two different birds, the former promoting wellness and longevity.

Vladimir Kuts

The bodies of well-trained athletes are better able to neutralize free radicals and deal with inflammation than their sedentary counterparts.

To a degree, that's absolutely correct, but there's a point above which the body's stores of glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, and catalase and the pathways that up regulate them are overwhelmed. Many former elite runners tend to age prematurely as well. Not all. Diet, genetics, and epigenetic factors are all involved.