WTW 4/5/2017 – Was Witchcraft To Blame For The World XC Collapse, All Hail Stephanie Bruce, And Why Women Collapse

Glad to see some physiological evidence on the women collapsing. I haven't had to lay on the ground, but if i don't bend over after hard runs in the heat or a marathon, i will pass out.

Anyone think it's a combo deal? You've got some biological reason that makes a few happen but then 'mass hysteria' takes over ?

Can this be mere coincidence? Maybe witchcraft is also to blame for women collapsing.

I notice that Ross Tucker doesn't have any scientific evidence that women collapsing isn't caused by witchcraft.

Haha please, women don't collapse on road races. Why? Because falling on hard roads might actually hurt. They fall on grass so easily because it's soft. They are very selective on where they would fall.

The last time I saw a women collapse on a road race was Shalane after the OT Marathon. And if you saw her the final 6 miles, it made sense that she couldn't hold herself up. The 10-15 girls falling at Pre-Nats is just dramatization of seeing the preceding girl fall too. Nothing else.

Interesting read on why women collapse. I was that girl once and the article makes a lot of sense. I was a decent high school runner and collapsed about four times at the end of a state championship meet...yes, it was one of those kodak moments crossing the line looking like a zombie. I was running a very fast pace but not out of the norm...probably around mid 18s for a "real" cross country course, trails not fast grass. It was a bit humid for early November. What I remember about that season is that after any of my very hard efforts (invitational or regional meets, etc) I felt like going to sleep "fainting feeling" but never actually collapsed like the state meet. Another interesting twist was that one summer during college (I competed D1), I got heat stroke after a 10 mile run. It was the first humid day of the year. I am also what you would call an excessive sweater. I think that the sweating factor has something to do with it. Both times, I knew something was off but kept going anyway. So my take is the humidity plays a roles, as does the fluids lost during sweat and young girls push themselves to extremes because they do not know any better. As an older runner, I would never push myself to that dangerous zone again.

Interesting but highly anecdotal. I think the 'phenomenon' is more about when it happens in such high numbers. You sometimes see 1 girl fainting, never see 3-5 girls fainting, but then it bumps back up in frequency if 5 or more girls faint.

I think it must be tied in some way to female responses to when they see a man with a hot girlfriend. Even if the guy is a troll, he will get a perception bump if enough females see him with her. Look at David Spade and his list of headpost notches.

Tucker has no evidence that women, even if they have more problems with blood pressure, "probably" have problems with vasoconstriction after a race. He's just guessing. Physiologically it would make no little sense, as it's known to be regulated by carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, and there's no reason to think this blood chemistry would change differently in women than men.

I'd hypothesize rather that there are differences in nervous function that allow men to maintain coordination more easily under total exhaustion, and thus less likely to toss that coordination aside when it's no longer needed. It may also be that men don't want to collapse because it's unmanly.

Sad story on Runnersworld.com A woman (mother of three) collapsed and passed away at a half marathon in Philly this past weekend. She finished but fell ill afterwards at the race site.

An internal hemorrhage was the cause. RIP Lindsay Doherty

that girl once wrote:

I am also what you would call an excessive sweater. I think that the sweating factor has something to do with it. ....

same here. i sweat more than pretty much anyone, male or female that i know. I think this means we dehydrate faster causing the blood pressure drops quickly when we stop.

Dr. George Sheehan in his book "Running and Being" writes that he often felt like fainting at the end of a big kick in races. He recommended kneeling; lying down makes the stress of a sudden stop bigger.