2nd Marathoner Dies

NYC Marathon officials confirmed that a second man died after Sunday's marathon. The NY Post reports that it was 66-year-old "retired pharmacist and community activist" Joseph Marotta (pictured), "a legally-blind Staten Island father who celebrated his son's gift of a kidney by completing the last four New York City Marathons suffered an apparent heart attack and died just hours after Sunday's race." Marotta had walked the race in over 9 hours; his son said his dad "struggled during the race but insisted on finishing." The other death was 58-year-old Brazilian Jose Carlos Gomes, who completed the race but complained of chest pains and died at a hospital later on. Newsday's Anthony Rieber wonders why the marathon is getting a pass after the deaths: "Can you imagine the outcry today from marathon sponsors such as Ch. 4 in New York and The New York Times if a big boxing match in the city ended with participants dying?"

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By Jen Chung in News on November 4, 2008 11:36 AM

Comments [rss]

NannyState

On any typical day in any community of 40,000 you get this kind of coffin action.

Future Taliban

"..a legally-blind Staten Island father who celebrated his son's gift of a kidney by completing the last four New York City Marathons"

Next time celebrate by staying home and resting STUPID.

petebfd

yeah, this is dumb. and why quote bad reporting because it happens to be controversial? its a cheap way to drum up interest in a post. yet its a pretty regular occurrence here.

do you agree with reiber? do you dispute him? i mean copying and pasting is an easy way to maintain objectivity i suppose, but come on...

moreice

This is silly. I run races of a 100+ miles. If I die, it's my fault.

AnonIdiot

After reading the Newsday article, I happened to click on the "Bio" link under the authors name:

"Anthony Rieber has been at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998 and in his current position since July 4, 2004. Before that he worked for eight years at the NY Daily News, where he was best known for the headline "Clueless Joe" when the Yankees hired Joe Torre. He is also responsible for the lesser-known headline "Yanks Top Tribe in 10.""

So, eight years at the Daily News, and his greatest achievement was one headline. With his bizarre comparison to a hypothetical boxing match, and elitist accusations, I'd say he's grasping at straws to try and drum up controversy.

It is definitely a tragedy that two people died as a result of their participation in the marathon, but surely there is an issue of personal responsibility of the runners. And I have yet to see either of the families expressing outrage at the organizers of the event. Perhaps they knew that their loved ones knew the risks and were willing to take that chance. And those family members are certainly more entitled to make accusations than Rieber.

Polemicist

The problem with marathons is they have ceased to be races - the average finishing time is actually about 50% greater today than it was 30 years ago.

Popularized by the Oprahs of the world, simply participating in a Marathon is considered a badge of honor. It doesn't matter if you win, perform well, or even finish.

People of poor physical conditioning generally have lower self esteem for a variety of reasons. Participating in the race is a "quick fix" for that moment of glory and affirmation they desire.

UnrepentantFenian

They knew the risk. They bought their tickets. I say let 'em crash.

Peter

I don't even begin to comprehend the boxing analogy. Boxers occasionally do die, and boxing is conducted on a far smaller scale than marathoning in terms of participants - there are perhaps only 250 fights in the entire world each week, you can count them if you want. Yet except for some tut-tutting by the AMA and other medical groups, which is mostly ignored, there's no call for banning the sport.

r1b2

There should perhaps be some more thorough vetting on entrants. As I commented the other day, I was handing out Gatorade with my kids at Mile 8 on 4th Avenue. At that early point, with over 16 miles to go, there were many, many, many walkers and shufflers. It seems unlikely that many of them were able to finish, or finish safely. It's a pity so many better prepared runners don't get their chance in the lottery.

Spirit of 76

Everybody dies. Even Jim Fixx died of a heart attack. Two older men out of 40,000 is not a huge number, unlike say, one out of two boxers.

Rocknrope

As #1 mentioned, what a ridiculous analogy. "A big boxing match" composed of thirty-eight thousand fighters? Rieber's editor should have taken more time with that article.

coolmidwestguy

Stick with Zoloft, silly white people LOL!

babyhitler

"son, i'm going to celebrate the gift of your kidney, you know, the one that we spent thousands on in surgery and the one that you had to endure hundreds of tests and experience excruciating pain to get and months to recover from with emotional pain and turmoil throughout your life by taxing my body to the limit in a 5 hour marathon. - Love Dad"

rdsizzle

Very unfortunate but running a marathon is an extremely strenous task for the body. People, especially older people, need to insure that they are in a good enough shape to take on the challenge.

My father who is 59, has recently started running half marathons, which is a great challenge for him. He is in a good shape but I think it would be unreasonable for him to take on full marathons at this point.

Politburo

Really? That's all he could come up with? A comparison to boxing?

The marathon has 38,000 people performing a very strenuous physical task. Some of them are not professionals and really shouldn't be running at all, but that's another debate. In any case, it just makes sense that a few people are going to die doing it, and that's why they get a pass.

People die in amateur motorsport (legal and illegal) all the time. You don't hear much about it, because it's just not news.