Detroit Marathon: 3 die

[Charlie_Francis]

@oldbloke

Book by Seb Coe`s father - excellent. As you might expect more orientated to shorter (middle distance) training.

Have not read the Galloway book. His volume looks very low. 2 x 2-4m plus 1 long run is nothing, depends on what the warm up warm down days mean.
I would be surprised if many people can hit 4hrs on a slight increase from that.
More typical for a runner aiming for sub 4 hrs is a weekly diet of:
2 x 5M
1 x 8m
1 x long run, 10M increasing to at least 18M.
Possibly a 5th run of long intervals, eg 5x1000. Or long hills. Total of 6M
Weekly total = 34-42.
One of my group who hit 2.55 was going above this volume.

Interested to see what level of sprinters tempo equates to this.

2.55 would be beyond the people i’ve dealt with entering recreationally, but, that said, the group with the main mortality figures would likely be slower than the people I dealt with.

[oldspeeder]

@Charlie_Francis

Most people running marathons are rcreational and tempo keeps the overall volumes far lower and safer. Much of the damage I’ve seen with marathon runs occurs over the last few weeks of training where long preparatory runs are done.
We’ve had several clients who wanted to do the marathon (don’t ask me why) and so we just trained them as normal and they did the run. One girl had trained with her boyfriend for several months but he switched to traditional training a month out and she just stayed with tempo. On race day she went out together with him but left him over the second half and could have run faster, she felt, if she had left him earlier in the race.
Same for a 50 yr old who trained with us. He had a group of business associates who wanted to do it, so he agreed but stayed with his normal training, and beat them all anyway, leaving the rest of the group pretty pissed off.
Many who do the traditional final prep period become so blown out after the marathon itself that they have to stop training for months to recover.

Along these lines, had a sprinter friend of mine several years back train for a marathon, he did the long runs, etc, seemed to be prepared, day of race got out to 10 mile mark did not feel right, continued anyway and finished. Subsequently came down with a mysterious virus, went to several doctors, a lot of blood work, put on 25 pounds, did not want to even think about running, it lasted 6 months and he finally kicked it. Went back to sprints, and some people run marathons and love it, i’ll stick to the 400,

[100m001]

@Pmoax19

Most issues like this are due to lack of preparation and/or OVER-hydration. Some people are very naive when it comes to these long endurance races and they think just because they jog a little bit here and there and have a subscription to runners world they are qualified to run 26.2 miles. Additionally there was an article not too long back in runners world called something like “8 Weeks to your first ultra-marathon”, absolute stupidity.

Yes, it is stupid, but the stupidity constantly gets promoted because a few people at the top make lots of money on entry fees and cancer/aids “research” marathons.

[100m001]

@kitkat1

Posted: 10:54 a.m. Oct. 18, 2009 | Updated: 10:16 p.m. Oct. 18, 2009
3 runners die in Detroit marathon
BY KORIE WILKINS
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

In the span of just 16 minutes, three men collapsed and died while running the 32nd Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Marathon – the first deaths in the event since 1994.

The first to collapse was Daniel Langdon, 36, of Laingsburg, at 9:02 a.m., said Rich Harshbarger, vice president of consumer marketing for the Detroit Media Partnership, which handles business operations for the Free Press and Detroit News. Langdon was on Michigan Avenue between the 11- and 12-mile markers.

Rick Brown, 65, of Marietta, Ohio, collapsed at 9:17 a.m. near where Langdon went down, Harshbarger said. And Jon Fenlon, 26, of Waterford collapsed at about 9:18 a.m., just after finishing the half-marathon in 1:53:37, he said.

Fenlon, whose Facebook page says he worked at the advertising firm Campbell-Ewald in Warren, graduated from Eastern Michigan University.

He made headlines in 2006 when he caught a home run ball hit by Magglio Ordoñez that sealed the Tigers’ sweep of the Oakland A’s – sending the team to the World Series, said friend Jenny Wroblewski.

Family members declined to comment Sunday, saying they were too distraught.

Friends and family of Langdon could not be reached for comment; Brown’s family declined to comment.

Deaths at marathons are rare. Minneapolis cardiologist Kevin Harris presented a study this year at the American College of Cardiology’s 58th Annual Scientific Session showing the death rate for marathons was 0.8 per 100,000 participants.

Sunday’s fatalities were the first in the race since 1994, when veteran runner Samuel Grafton, 42, of Troy, died of a heart attack at the 22-mile mark. Grafton’s death was the only other recorded death in the race’s history.

The deadliest day of running occurred during the 2008 Great North Run half marathon in England in 2005, when four male runners died on a warm and humid September day.

“It’s important to emphasize the rarity of it because far more people have health benefits from the sport than these type of issues occurring,” said Keith Hanson, coach of Hansons-Brooks Distance Project, an elite running club based in Rochester Hills.

(2 of 2)

Hanson, who has attended hundreds of marathons, said he thought the weather didn’t contribute to the deaths.

National Weather Service meteorologist Steve Considine said at 7 a.m. the temperature at City Airport was 28 degrees with a cloudless sky. By 9 a.m., the temperature was 34.

Marathon doctors and race officials said rapid, state-of-the-art resuscitation was provided to the three runners who died. There were 14 doctors on the event’s medical team of more than 60 health workers, said Dr. Jenny Atas, an emergency physician from Detroit Receiving Hospital, who directed the medical team.

Runners also sign a medical release form.

When a runner, believed to be Langdon, collapsed, three spectators began administering CPR and stayed with him until help arrived.

“We did everything we could,” said one spectator, a nurse, who asked not to be identified because she wanted to remain private. “I want the family to know that.”

Steve Corcoran, 62, of Farmington Hills and his daughter, Maureen Bauschke, 27, of Kalamazoo put a coat under Brown’s head, as they and other spectators shielded him from runners.

Jim Young, 60, director of the 5K and half marathon portion of the race, stood over Fenlon as medical workers performed CPR. Young held out his arms, blocking Fenlon from other runners.

“I don’t think they really knew,” Young said.

Staff writers Bill Laitner, Eric Sharp, Tammy Stables Battaglia, Zlati Meyer, Amber Hunt, Gene Myers and Jo-Ann Barnas contributed to this report.

I’m not surprised by this due to the flu/h1n1 going around, along with mass inoculations. In other words, I’m sure a few people who were there competing were sick but should have been at home.