3 people die in Detroit Marathon

Pisco Sour

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jC87b8dqot_-Uku5X99x2tBdSD4gD9BEACGO3

Hearing this type of thing makes me very apprehensive about attempting to make the step up to do my first marathon. Am I being silly thinking like this?

louthandproud

04072511 wrote: »

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jC87b8dqot_-Uku5X99x2tBdSD4gD9BEACGO3

Hearing this type of thing makes me very apprehensive about attempting to make the step up to do my first marathon. Am I being silly thinking like this?

Yes, withdraw posting!

RoyMcC

04072511 wrote: »

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jC87b8dqot_-Uku5X99x2tBdSD4gD9BEACGO3

Hearing this type of thing makes me very apprehensive about attempting to make the step up to do my first marathon. Am I being silly thinking like this?

Yes. It's like looking at RTA stats and deciding not to cross the road any more.

copacetic

The conditions seemed perfect too, not hot at all.

Enduro

This came up here a few months ago. Quite simply you are statisticly more likely to die when you are NOT running a marathon than when you are.

Rented Mule

Thanks to jogging more people are dropping dead in perfect health - Rodney Dangerfield.

robinph

Enduro wrote: »

This came up here a few months ago. Quite simply you are statisticly more likely to die when you are NOT running a marathon than when you are.

Exactly, and if the search was back working again I'm sure we could dig back up those statistics for the OP. People die during marathons, more people die sat on the sofa not doing a marathon during that time though.

bazman

Lies, damned lies, and statistics

If you were to take the same 13k people and sit them down on the couch for four hours none (or less) would have died - 3 died because they over exerted themselves on the day, so it is something worth some consideration.

In general I'd say it's a good idea to get a full medial check-up at least every 5 years or so and to build up your mileage slowly. If you prepare for a marathon properly the risks are negligible. It's not something to be apprehensive about ...

plodder

bazman wrote: »

Lies, damned lies, and statistics

If you were to take the same 13k people and sit them down on the couch for four hours none (or less) would have died - 3 died because they over exerted themselves on the day, so it is something worth some consideration.

In general I'd say it's a good idea to get a full medial check-up at least every 5 years or so and to build up your mileage slowly. If you prepare for a marathon properly the risks are negligible. It's not something to be apprehensive about ...

It's true there is a slightly greater risk of dying while running a marathon, but the health benefits (and consequent reduction of risk of dying) from training for a marathon, more than out weigh that risk. Runners are more healthy than average, is a well established fact.

robinph

bazman wrote: »

Lies, damned lies, and statistics

If you were to take the same 13k people and sit them down on the couch for four hours none (or less) would have died - 3 died because they over exerted themselves on the day, so it is something worth some consideration.

In general I'd say it's a good idea to get a full medial check-up at least every 5 years or so and to build up your mileage slowly. If you prepare for a marathon properly the risks are negligible. It's not something to be apprehensive about ...

OK, so the rate of death amongst the general population would be less than 3 per 13,000 in a day, it's not out by a huge amount though. Think it was something like 1/30,000 per day when this came up before in relation to a death during the London Marathon.

jlang

How about this (no numbers)..

No non-runners die running a marathon (by definition). Therefore for a non-runner, marathons are extremely safe and the deaths that occur during marathons can only be shared among the running population, making marathons relatively risky for runners. However, the benefits of being fitter lead to runners (marathons or otherwise) having lower early death rates than the general population.

I'll continue to risk kicking the bucket specifically in a race if it means that across my life, my risk of dying is reduced.

Condo131

I researched this about two years ago when I was making a case for Cork clubs getting defibrillators - thankfully, very many did, including my own.

Anyway - I'm going from memory though - in any general public group of 10,000 you're going to have an average of 1 coronary incident. However, for 1 coronary incident in a group of trained runners, that jumps to 1 in 80,000.

As far as I can remember there has been three deaths in the Dublin City Marathon. The last was about 3 or 4 years ago, while the other two occurred about 1990, both around the 20M mark. Call it 10,000 runners a year, i.e. 300,000 runners. That's 1 death per 100,000 runners on average.

If you've trained and prepared properly AND you haven't ignored health issues, you shouldn't have any problem.

You also need to be mindful of conditions - heat, humidity and cold are potential problems. Those are unlikely to be a major problem on Monday next (fingers crossed!!). If they are bad, you'll need to reassess your time goals.

If necessary, cut back - there'll be other days. Take it from me, your health is your wealth - worth far more than any PB.

btw, this ONE of the main reasons why number swops are not permitted. Can you imagine Jim Smith running with Joe Bloggs number. Next thing Jim has an incident and Joe's relatives are informed by the authorities (who have Joe's details from his race number) that Joe is in hospital! Remote as it is, it does happen!

gaffo7

no disrespect to the first gentleman mentioned but a 65 year old man with lung disease running in 41 deg of heat is a dead man walking (running).

Condo131

gaffo7 wrote: »

no disrespect to the first gentleman mentioned but a 65 year old man with lung disease running in 41 deg of heat is a dead man walking (running).

Touche!

As I said:

Condo131 wrote: »

.............AND you haven't ignored health issues, you shouldn't have any problem.

William72

gaffo7 wrote: »

no disrespect to the first gentleman mentioned but a 65 year old man with lung disease running in 41 deg of heat is a dead man walking (running).

Not to diasagree with your general point but I would imagine, this being a US story, that they are saying 41F which is about 5C - more likely for Detroit in October methinks

xebec

Take a look at this article from Dr Lewis Maharam, chair of Board of Governors, International Marathon Medical Doctors Association.

He goes into the issues, not to huge depth but enough to get his point across.

The main point for me in the article is:

...please remember that running is safe and healthy for the vast majority of the people, in the vast majority of cases.