did anyone else see this?
freaky…this is 3 deaths in 5 years…wtf?
This has always concerned me with any race.
“Witnesses say it took 15 minutes for an ambulance crew to reach the man because of road closures associated with the race.”
I wonder if RD’s really put in the amount of energy and priority needed for safety as more older folks do races. Getting emergency help to a location quickly I bet has been considered by few, since what fun is planning the negatives.
Dave
I just ran the 1/2 today, and was also there last year when it happened, and it was terrible.
Humbles you really quick…all of a sudden finish time is no longer important…
This really sucks. One year at the Ottawa Marathon (2000), one of the guys that I finished a few seconds ahead died at the line. I finished in 3:01 that day and he was aparently pushing really hard to break 3. Don’t recall all the details, but it hit really close to home. Funny thing is since then, I have been reluctant to dig really really deep for a few seconds. Just not worth it. I wanna live to see my son graduate from highschool, college, get married and have kids etc etc…oh yeah and qualify for Kona when I turn 60 
there was an incident @ IMC this year on the bike course…really bad crash. Took a while for emergency response crews to get out, but that was more a factor of lack of communication/180km bike course/etc
it is a scary thought though that you might die on course b/c of lack of medical personnel.
the real wonder is how does the race continue to get insurance with 3 deaths?
Just because the ambulance took 15 minutes to get there, doesn’t mean that no medical personell were with the patient prior to it’s arrival. Many events have medical at the finish line. Most, not all but most, race directors realize the need for good medical at events.
Having done TO marathon twice, there is a large medical presence at the finish line.
I know when I crashed at the vineman 2 years ago, some guy just driving by saw me on the side of the road and took me back to have an ambulance called.
(This is what I think he told me since I still do not remember much).
And I TOTALLY agree about communications!! Again, I know when I was a co RD, when I would bring up things like I expect an ambulance to be at the race, I was blown off and told I was being to negative.
I was talking to a gal today at the golden state race and she told me about a neighbor of hers who had a heart attack during the swim at the Donner oly race this year. ( I was in the race and did not hear a thing.) I think see said it took 30 minutes to get an ambulance.
I again made a big stink when I was co RD about the safety in the swim, and still do. The attitude was in this race, and I bet many others, yea we have a bunch of folks on koyaks, but, could any of them do CPR, etc if someone had a heart attack? I challenge any race to pretend someone in the swim is having a heart attack and test how the safety response is.
I know we had a water ski accident at our lake and when the fire fighters got here, they had NO equipment or training to deal with a lake accident, and there largest customers are the folks that live at this lake.
Dave
Dave
One year at the Ottawa Marathon (2000)
Off topic, but is there a better marathon anywhere? I’ve been there for the last 4 years, and it is absolutely SPECTACULAR!!! Great course (especially now that it’s one loop), outstanding scenery, wonderful crowds, and fast. Plus, you race through the nicest parts of one of the most beautiful cities in the world!
That city really gets behind the while race weekend - it’s full of such positive energy.
The National Capital Marathon (www.ncm.ca) has really taken a step up since Race Director John Halvorsen took over a few years ago. John was one of the top rated 10K runners in the early 90’s. He was one of the few “white guys” who made it to the finals in the 10,000m at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics alongside all the fast east Africans. John had raced at major road races around the world and his experience has really helped the race.
John and I were in grad school together doing our MBA. He’d fly out on Friday evenings, to some race somewhere in the world, win 10-25K (or a car) and fly back for work and classes on Monday. At the time we were both working full time and doing grad school at nite. Big difference is that he was also an elite world class runner, while the rest of us were posers. His intellect and attention to detail really shows in the quality of the event. The NCM is a gem of a race and largely unknown to the worldwide marathoning community, but it will keep growing. I get to be 90 min pace bunny for the half marthon these days
Emergency response takes more than simply contacting the providers, that is absolutely certain. In the USMC we make a regular habit of running medevac drills during field events, to include live fire ranges. During one particular 2-week evolution that I was responsible for we ran several drills that culminated with emergency vehicle action. If I recall, the first drill took something on the order of 40 minutes more than a similar drill a week or so later. From that lesson I learned the importance of full rehearsals, not just for my unit and corpsmen, but for the emergency crews as well. I’m pretty sure that would apply to RDs as well. It would be tough to do an actual rehearsal that simulated the raceday conditions with athletes and road closures to contend with. But certainly walking through several situations with maps, with RD, volunteers, police, and emergency crews present will help point out flaws in each entity’s understanding…its eye-opening when, for instance, the emergency crew says “we’ll take this route/road and…” and the cop speaks up and says “no you won’t, we have that one closed…” Everyone re-cocks and figures it out… I don’t know how many times this sort of rehearsal actually happens, but if I were an RD, I would make it a priority.
Its not just the “negatives” but the small stuff that bites any endeavor in the ass…plan AND rehearse them.