Mother of four’s death in half marathon sparks debate
Runners pass through the buttes on east McDowell Road during the P.F. Chang’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona Half Marathon in January. Participation numbers in half marathons have quadrupled since 2000, but the ratio of cardiac-related incidents to participants has remained steady, research shows.
When Amanda Glover, a 32-year-old mother of four, collapsed and died moments after completing the Palmetto Half Marathon in Columbia, S.C., on April 11, it sparked a debate about the safety of running long distances.
It’s a debate that probably has raged since the very first marathon.
As the story goes, a messenger named Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens to report an Athenian army victory over the Persians — only to collapse and die after delivering the news, “Rejoice, we conquer.”
The cause of Glover’s death has not been released. Most deaths in marathons and half marathons are attributed to sudden cardiac arrest due to arrhythmia or an electrical disturbance of the heart, or a heart attack caused by coronary artery disease.
A comprehensive study of such deaths published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2012 found that there is one cardiac arrest for every 184,000 participants and one death for every 259,000 participants.
That study tracked 10.9 million runners who participated in marathons and half marathons from January 2000 to May 2010. Its authors show evidence that cardiac-arrest rates in long-distance running events are “equivalent to or lower than the risk experienced in other vigorous physical activity.”
So why does it seem as if there is a large number of incidents?
– Joseph Marquez, a 57-year-old Phoenix runner, suffered a heart attack during the recent Phoenix Half-Marathon in Mesa. He was revived when Mesa Fire Department paramedics and other medical personal at the finish line used CPR and an automated external defibrillator.
– A 61-year-old man suffered a heart attack at mile 22 of the recent Los Angeles Marathon, the second year in a row that someone suffered a heart attack at that event and survived.
in Pittsburgh; a 38-year-old in Maryland; two runners in their 30s in North Carolina; and another of that age in Brooklyn — died of cardiac arrest in half marathons.
But research has shown that the ratio of deaths to participants has remained steady. The difference is that the number of runners participating, particularly in half marathons, has skyrocketed.
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