A running I will go
Those that know me know that I have run a few marathons. They also know that I am not your prototypical marathon runner. News of a tragedy the likes of what happened at Chicago’s marathon does get my attention.
First of all I do not jump to conclusions like the local media. Read past posts to see how I feel about the media. I wait to see what the facts are and let those facts weigh in on my feelings towards running. I have not seen a case yet that would indicate that any person who has passed away during or shortly after running a marathon would not have done so if he ran or not. The facts are a person needs to make sure they are healthy enough to run a marathon.
Second, I do check with my Doctor regarding my physical well being and even my mental well being for that matter. Over the past several years I have probably averaged a full physical every 14 months. My next one in this Thursday and my running will be a part of the discussion. Should he say I shouldn’t run. Well than maybe and it’s just a maybe, I’ll stop seeing a doctor and continue to run. Just kidding Mary (my sister) I would get a second opinion though.
One item that I do believe is a problem with marathons these days, many of them are way too big. Problems are inevitable and soon a tragedy is going to happen because of it. It is my understanding fro a volunteer involved in the Chicago marathon the Hospitals requested that the race director stop the marathon. He did so because of their request. The hospitals were overwhelmed by the people who did have heat related problems. 30,000 plus runners having a small percentage of problems creates a substantial number of people seeking medical attention in a short period of time. How many cases can an emergency room handle in an hour? On top of that add in the normal workload in the emergency rooms a catastrophic loss will occur. For the record 1 loss is catastrophic.
Also, a runner needs to pay attention to all the signals the body puts out. There a signals during a run and well after a run. I am not sure if this Chicago guy had any and I hope he didn’t but if he did then we need to learn. The theory of “no pain no gain” is nothing but hogwash. The phrase needs to be “no pain well that’s just great”.
My thoughts. Please feel free to add your thoughts to this post or any other posts. There is no pain in doing so and I gain the knowledge that others are reading my gibberish. I wonder sometimes if I am p—ing against the wind here.