I've been following the news on the young lady who unfortunately died immediately after she finished the Chicago Marathon last week. Apparently, although it's not official, there is now mentioned she had a problem related to her left heart valve.
http://www.canada.com/...A4-84E0-34DE9C12BF20
I guess my concern is, even if you are in super shape and do Ironmans or half Ironmans, how would you know you have a heart defect, or have a potential pulmonary embolism set to go off, if your blood pressure is normal and you have no obvious high risk criteria?. EKGs are expensive, and I'm not sure if your carrier would cover them, preventatively, without some immediate problem in coronary disease surfacing, prior to a race. And will EKGs or stress tests really show or detect these aberrant cases?. Although there is massive amounts of support for the fact that getting in great shape greatly reduces coronary disease, there seems to be some evidence, that doing endurance racing, might trigger the defect or problem.
http://www.canada.com/...A4-84E0-34DE9C12BF20
I guess my concern is, even if you are in super shape and do Ironmans or half Ironmans, how would you know you have a heart defect, or have a potential pulmonary embolism set to go off, if your blood pressure is normal and you have no obvious high risk criteria?. EKGs are expensive, and I'm not sure if your carrier would cover them, preventatively, without some immediate problem in coronary disease surfacing, prior to a race. And will EKGs or stress tests really show or detect these aberrant cases?. Although there is massive amounts of support for the fact that getting in great shape greatly reduces coronary disease, there seems to be some evidence, that doing endurance racing, might trigger the defect or problem.