Extra, Extra
Extra, Extra
Extra, Extra
Extra, Extra
Early Addition
Just a day before the running of the NYC Marathon, the U.S. Olympic trials for the men's marathon were marred by an untimely death today. 28-year-old Ryan Shay died while competing in the Olympic trials in Central Park, just a few miles into the 26.2 mile race. Shay collapsed at the 5.5 mile mark of the race and was taken to Lenox Hill Hospital where he was declared dead. The cause of death has yet to be determined.
Eventual winner, Ryan Hall, was close with Shay and didn't learn of his friend's death until after he'd won the race in 2 hours, 9 minutes, and 2 seconds. According to The New York Times, Hall and Shay knew each other well in the often close community of competitive marathoners
New York Road Runners president Mary Wittenberg, who announced Shay's death, said, “Forever there will be a cloud over what would otherwise be the greatest trials we’ve seen. We all know we’ve got three guys who will run extra inspired in Beijing. It’s heart-wrenching. These things happen, but they’re not supposed to happen at the height of an athlete’s life and career and on one of the biggest days of their career. There must be a reason for it all, but it’s certainly not clear to us right now.” Last month, Wittenberg called the Chicago Marathon, where the humidity and unseasonably warm weather caused numerous heat-related injuries and one death - as well as the marathon to be canceled a few hours in - "an act-of-God kind of day."
The 2008 Olympics will take place in Beijing, China. Brian Sell, Daniel Ritzenhein, and Ryan Hall will compete on behalf of the U.S. Author Jim Fixx championed the 1970s running movement before he ironically died of a heart attack.
(Lead Pack Before 16th Mile Mark, by streetaper at flickr)
add to digg
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
email this
add to facebook
add to del.icio.us
Some people claim that marathon running is a dangerous activity. Fitness writer Art DeVany has written quite a bit on this topic, complete with cites to medical studies.
rest in peace
Very tragic
dangerous to run eh?
even the writer points out you can die from complications related to drugs and or heart problems
I bet almost any case of a runner dying suddenly can be explained.
here for example is a basketball player who also died at the age of 28 from an enlarged heart - previously undetected... he also experienced a shortness of breath
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Collier
id say your chances of dying while running are not even as high as your chance of getting hit by a car or dying in an airplane crash... but then thats just my guess!
Most sudden death during athletic competition is due to cardiac arrhythmia, usually ventricular fibrillation. Although sometimes random and unpredictable, many people at risk for arrhythmia have a heart muscle disease that can be detected using simple, non-invasive tests. Perhaps it is time for more widespread testing. Those identified with such predisposition can be given a device (ICD) that will detect abnormal heart rhythms and deliver a shock to defibrillate the heart. Some of these individuals can return to athletic competition.
Some sudden death during long-distance running is attributable to low potassium from over-hydration.
There has been a tendency for runners to overdrink before and during a race. The optimal amount of fluid intake before and during a race needs to be identified.
* * * *
Unforeseeing one! Yes, he fought on the Marathon day:
So, when Persia was dust, all cried, "To Acropolis!
Run, Pheidippides, one race more! the meed is thy due!
Athens is saved, thank Pan, go shout!" He flung down his shield
Ran like fire once more: and the space 'twixt the fennel-field
And Athens was stubble again, a field which a fire runs through,
Till in he broke: "Rejoice, we conquer!" Like wine through clay,
Joy in his blood bursting his heart, - the bliss!
So, to this day, when friend meets friend, the word of salute
Is still "Rejoice!"--his word which brought rejoicing indeed.
So is Pheidippides happy forever,--the noble strong man
Who could race like a god, bear the face of a god, whom a god loved so well,
He saw the land saved he had helped to save, and was suffered to tell
Such tidings, yet never decline, but, gloriously as he began,
So to end gloriously--once to shout, thereafter be mute:
"Athens is saved!"--Pheidippides dies in the shout for his meed
from "Pheidippides" by Robert Browning