This girl was a college soccer player. They can run nearly 7 miles in one game. She was more than fit. I’m guessing lack of hydration with sun stroke or heart condition that wasn’t diagnosed.
OT: Cleveland Marathon runner dies
- Thread starter Macchiato
- Start date
She was running the half. I'm not a doctor so I can't comment on anything medical. But yesterday in Cleveland was brutal for the runners and they had to run into the sun up a hill before the final bridge down the hill to the finish line. I heard most runners complaining of having that sun hit them in the face when the temps were around 80 or so. So I'm guessing this girl's death had something to do with dehydration.
But I do know of a guy who ran the Pittsburgh EQT 10 miler a few years back on a cool day (November). He died about a half mile from the finish line from a heart attack. He was in his early 30's. The autopsy showed no heart defects or anomalies and they said he was hydrated. No one ever knew the cause of his death. Sometimes, the causes are never known.
I get what you're saying. I think the point you made about acclimating to the heat is important. I doubt that many who ran that race yesterday had run in heat consistently over the past few months, or even weeks. I'm sure that young lady was well-conditioned and had trained at least to some extent, knowing that running in soccer games isn't the same as running in a road race. Not even close
Toward the end of the race as you approach the finish line, I think the EMT's were getting swamped with calls for medical attention as the day wore on. They were doing their best with what they had in those conditions.
My son commented that he wished he hadn't done this marathon because he was constantly weaving in an out between a bunch of slow runners and 10Kers. He won't make that mistake again.
Just guessing, but it seemed like 3 minutes until the EMT's got there with the AED and their support. The ambulance was only maybe 50 ft. away on a side street. They were using one of those automatic chest compressors most of the time she was on the ground and into the ambulance. I think they worked on her while she was laying on the ground for maybe 10 minutes before they put her in the ambulance. She never moved. She was blue before she hit the ground and while she was trying to run.
I am not a runner. I am not qualified to provide any critique about the woman or any inherent risks. I was merely responding to @HailToPitt1985 posts about HOW LONG it took the ambulance and EMS staff to attend to her, that's all. It seems at basically the finish line, an EMT and support should have been right there without any time delay. He described what a cluster it was even getting the ambulance to her.
Maybe I'm being unfair, but it seems that is a detail that should be foremost in any race layout. Again, I'm not talking about what happened to her, but what happened after she collapsed. That's it.
pitt-girl, you have to keep in mind that the ambulance was trying to go against runners coming right at it in the full marathon lane. And the driver was trying to back up the ambulance out onto the street and having a difficult time making the turn with the runners right behind him. When the young lady (Taylor Ceepo) collapsed and was on the ground in the half marathon lane, the elite full marathon runners were running right at the oncoming ambulance. They were going right at each other. It just seemed very strange to me the way it all happened and how long it took. The guy who won the full marathon had to maneuver his way around the ambulance and the crowd trying to help her. Just not a lot of room.
I'm not trying to start another one of those famous confrontational series of posts that seem to be popular on this site. I'm just trying to report what I saw and how it all happened.
