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Deaths mar fun runs
As the presumably cheapest and easiest sport to participate in, running has gained more popularity over the past few years
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As the presumably cheapest and easiest sport to participate in, running has gained more popularity over the past few years.
The number of running events, mostly fun runs, has increased over the past few years, but unfortunately have taken a wrong turn in which participants died.
In the last 12 months, Indonesia has recorded at least six marathon deaths.
Indonesian Professional Sports Agency (BOPI) chief Richard Sam Bera met with the Indonesian Athletics Federation (PASI) and Maybank Bali Marathon organizer, among others, on Sept. 17 to discuss ways to avoid fatalities.
“[We held] the meeting to improve the management of running [events] in the country,” said Richard in a statement.
He pointed out the importance of runners being aware of their physical condition prior to participating in endurance sports.
“Technically speaking, to race a full marathon in a tropical country is very demanding. It's worse when runners are not in prime condition,” said the former national swimmer who participates in triathlons.
Bertha Gani, director of Run ID, which organized the Maybank Bali Marathon, said the event had applied standard safety procedures, including in providing 10 regular ambulances and 15 motorcycle ambulances for the race.
Some pacers in the Maybank Marathon had also been trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for emergency situations.
Elsewhere, the Youth and Sports Ministry’s Eminence Sports Medicine and Performance Center (SPPOI) director, Andi Kurniawan, said fatalities during events defeated the main purpose of such events, which was to accommodate the desire to participate in a healthy activity.
“Such incidents also create fear in people as they will start to question [the safety of] the event,” the physician said in a recent discussion.
South Jakarta’s Medistra Hospital internist Gunawan pointed out common causes of a runner collapsing during events.
“The main cause [of death] is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which usually happens to runners aged below 40,” he said, adding that the condition involved the heart muscle enlarging, which causes the walls of the ventricles to thicken.
“So when running, the heart cannot work at its maximum, disrupting the flow of blood to the body, including to the brain. This led to sudden collapse. Most cases happen nearing the finish line because they are about to finish the race and their brains will say ‘sprint, sprint!’. They push their limits and this can slow down the flow of blood,” he added.
Participating in an event in the country also means that people have to be prepared for the heat as many victims also die as a result of heatstroke, he said.
Another cause of death in runners is dysnatremia, which is an unusual amount — high or low — of sodium in the body. The tendency to drink copious amounts of water during and after a race can be dangerous as it may cause hyponatremia, a low level of sodium in blood.
“If you consume too much water 24 hours after a race, and this is usually because of a lack of knowledge, it could be fatal. The symptoms vary from nausea and throwing up to limping and pins-and-needles or a tingling sensation,” said Gunawan. “Most runners don’t listen to their bodies. They know they have an illness but force themselves to join a running event anyway.”
Andi criticized the level of participant screening by organizers. He said some organizers only required runners to provide a letter from a doctor that stated their fitness. Andi argued that such letters were easy to obtain without undergoing a thorough medical examination.
“[The organizers] should do more in the screening by questioning the medical history of those who want to run. The result of such questioning would determine whether they were fit for a race,” he said.
Andi said a campaign on self-awareness regarding safety in marathons should be conducted by runners, organizers and the government.
“[Deaths in marathons] may not be talked about a lot in public, but one fatality is one fatality too many.”
