San Antonio, TX – News has been circuiting the web that another runner has died in a ½ marathon/marathon. The runner was 32 year-old Jorge Fernandez who was declared dead shortly after collapsing just past the finish line of the 13.1 mile rate. The Bexar County medical examiner’s office has yet to determine a cause of death. “Fernandez, a one-time student at the University of Texas at San Antonio who graduated from Texas Tech in 2010, was a decorated Air Force staff sergeant who served two tours in Iraq, the last in 2006. He worked as a nurse in the surgical intensive-care unit of University Hospital after moving from Lubbock this year to be closer to his family (Oliver, 2011).”
This asks the question why do so many marathoners die? In most cases with runner’s deaths, it is because of an underlying health/genetic heart condition/defect that cause heart attacks and other cardiac related problems. We all know that running marathons puts a lot of strain on the body and combine that with hot temperatures and other factors and an ailment that may have been overlooked may pop out and kill an individual.
During a long running event as in this marathon, the heart becomes under more and more stress throughout the race as the body begins to fall into exhaustion. If dehydration starts to set in, the heart will work even harder to push diminishing volume of blood through the body.
Fernandez’s death is the fourth U.S. marathon death in two months and the third involving the Rock ‘n’ Roll marathon series fun by the San Diego-based Competitor Group. This may scare people away from running or competing in a marathon. I would consider that amongst the general population, marathon participants are probably less likely than their non-active peers to die from common conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, etc.
Run2sd
References
Oliver, R. (2011, November 14). Death at finish mars rock 'n' roll marathon. Retrieved from http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Death-at-finish-mars-Rock-n-Roll-Marathon-2267681.php
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