Category Archives: Marathon

Shay’s Autopsy Released

2 Replies

Ryan Shay, 28, who died tragically last fall during the Men’s Olympic Marathon Trials, died of natural causes.

From the New York Times:

More than four months after Shay’s death, the medical examiner completed the autopsy and toxicology reports, describing his condition as “cardiac arrhythmia due to cardiac hypertrophy with patchy fibrosis of undetermined etiology.”

All of his toxicology reports came back negative. He had previously been diagnosed with an enlarged heart, which may have been a factor in his death. Shay was an accomplished marathoner with a 2:14 PR.

My wife an RN said this:

His heart had a bad rhythm because his heart was enlarged due to an unknown tissue or something.

I am not a doctor but here are definitions from around the web for each phrase of the report:

Cardiac Arrhthmia – a term for any of a large and heterogenous group of conditions in which there is abnormal electrical activity in the heart. The heart beat may be too fast or too slow, and may be regular or irregular.

Cardiac Hypertrophy – is a thickening of the heart muscle (myocardium) which results in a decrease in size of the chamber of the heart, including the left and right ventricles. A common cause of cardiac hypertrophy is high blood pressure (hypertension) and heart valve stenosis.

Fibrosis – is the formation or development of excess fibrous connective tissue in an organ or tissue as a reparative or reactive process, as opposed to a formation of fibrous tissue as a normal constituent of an organ or tissue.

Patchy Fibrosis just means that there was excess tissue growing in patches around the organ – in this case the heart.

Eitiology – is the study of causes

Undetermined Eitiology would just mean of an unknown cause.

It is good to finally know what happened to Shay.  Our thoughts and prayers are still with the entire family and the elite running community as they mourn his loss.

HT: The Final Sprint

Wisconsin Marathoner Dies at Little Rock

2 Replies

Much has been written about the tragic year for the marathon in 2007 and we were all hoping for a better year in 2008. Sadly, tragedy has struck the race again during this weekend’s 6th Little Rock Marathon.

Adam Nickel, of Madison, Wis., was pronounced dead late Sunday morning near the finish line of the race, which attracted about 9,000 entrants, race officials said.

Nickel, 27 was an experienced runner having completed 6 marathons and finished this race in under 3 hours – even looking strong at the finish according to the race director. He collapsed shortly after crossing the finish line and emergency crews were unable to resuscitate him. The cause of death hasn’t been determined as of writing this post – however one doctor speculated some type of congenital heart condition which sounds similar to last year’s marathon deaths.

According to MarathonGuide.com Nickel ran a 2:54 marathon last year at Las Vegas.

From Fox 16 News and Arkansas Online.

[tags] Marathon, Little Rock, Arkansas [/tags]

Huck-a-Marathon

Leave a reply

Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee is also in the running for a marathon. The 112th running of the Boston Marathon to be exact. This is not his first marathon – he and his wife Janet ran the Little Rock Marathon and the Marine Corps Marathon in 2005. Mike finished in 4:39 and 4:37 respectively, and his wife finished in 7:40 and 7:07. In 2006 Mike ran the New York City Marathon in 5:33. He didn’t run any in 2007 or 2008 yet. (Results provided by MarathonGuide.com)

The Washington Post reported in 2005 that Huckabee passed on a Presidential Invitation for the Inauguration parade to go on a training run. That’s a little over the top maybe? Huckabee was also named “Athlete of the Week” by the USATF in the same year. Running’s governing body says the running governor inspired a 30% increase in marathon participation. Huckabee lost 110 pounds and went from the couch to 5K to Marathon in two years!

Huckabee is entering the Boston Marathon on a Charity Waiver provided through Team Hoyt Racing. (source)

Photo Credit

[tags] Huckabee, Marathon, Mike Huckabee, Boston Marathon [/tags]

Foto Friday: Spirit of the Marathon Edition!

2 Replies

Eagan, MN Regal Stadium 16

I didn’t take any other pictures inside the theater! This was an excellent movie, I would highly recommend that anyone who didn’t go last night should go to the encore screening on February 21 at 7:30pm. It was inspiring, funny, touching, and triumphant! There were plenty of famous people and some excellent quotes.We also stayed to watch the “Making of the Movie” less than half our audience stayed. The theater had the movie showing on two screens, one of which was sold out!It was nice to see the Chicago Marathon in 2005 was excellent conditions, since my only experience was this past year as a volunteer.

I also thought it was interesting to see the Brooks Hanson guys pacing the elite runners throughout the beginning of the race. Especially now that Brian Sells is an Olympic Contender.

Did you enjoy the movie?

[tags] Foto, Marathon, Spirit of the Marathon[/tags]

Marathoning By The Numbers

Leave a reply

MarathonGuide.com the leading source for marathon-related information has compiled the 2007 USA Marathon Report.

The report shows that 403,000 individuals finished one of 340 marathons (they expect the number to rise to 407,000 after final reports from Honolulu and Chicago are done), with 60.5% of that being males averaging 4:29:52 at 40.5 years old. The remaining 39.5% were females with an average age of 36.5 and an average finish time of 4:59:28. Overall ths is a 2.3% growth with a higher growth rate among males (3.2) versus females (1.3).

New York City was by far the largest marathon with 38,557 finishers, almost 12,000 more than Chicago and 14,000 more than Honolulu. While the latter two marathons have had problems with reporting the total number of finishers due to closing the course and a chip malfunction. (Chicago estimated around 30,000 of the 40,000 entrants started the race).

Only 1.7% (just under 7,000) of finishers broke the 3-hour barrier, while 28.8% broke the 4 hour mark. Finally, broken down by age groups – the fastest average group for men 40-44 was also the largest group, its mean time was 4:21:00 and had 16% of male marathoners. The women’s fastest group was 35-39 with a mean time of 4:51:30 while the largest group was 25-29 which had 19% of female finishers.

HT: The Final Sprint

Yesterday’s Workout

I hit the bike today for 7.75 miles in 30 minutes.  It was an easy pace.  We saw several accidents on the way to the gym.  One was two cars rolled over next to each other.  The roads were a little slick with the fresh snow coming down.  Be safe out there!

[tags] Marathon, Road Race, Statistics [/tags]