Is Running Safe?

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Recent deaths make people wonder if they should keep running.

The man often thought to be the most instrumental person in the popularization of jogging in the 1970s caused America to miss a heartbeat in 1984 when he died during a run. Jim Fixx, author of the Complete Book on Running, was just 52. Five years earlier, President Jimmy Carter had collapsed during a 10K race in Catoctin Mountain Park. These two incidents put a big dent in the belief that running was a healthy hobby.

Today the general consensus is that running is good for the body, perhaps providing the best overall form of aerobic exercise. However, after a recent spate of deaths has hit the running world, red flags are again being waved over the sport. At the Chicago Marathon last year, Chad Schieber, a fit looking 35-year-old, collapsed and died. During the marathon, I heard an on-site policeman say, “People are stupid. It is over 90 degrees and 94 percent humidity, yet they still want to run a marathon?” A shocking 302 people were taken to hospital that day.

A month later when Ryan Shay, 28, a well-trained U.S. national champion, died less than 10 kilometers into the U.S. Olympic trials race, people started asking, “Is this really a safe sport?” Both Schieber and Shay were later found to have pre-existing heart conditions. Does this mean we should all see a cardiologist before signing up for our next marathon? Should a stress test be part of the registration form?

Dr. Norb Sander, the only doctor to ever have won the New York City Marathon, advises runners to use common sense. “I am testing myself this summer. I don’t have risk factors, but I am being precautionary,” Sander says. “It is very expensive and time consuming [to take a stress test]. For someone [without the] medical background it probably does not warrant doing it. For example, even if you do take a stress test it may not show a cardio myopathy, like Shay was thought to have. The [race] organizers can’t take on too much responsibility,” he says.

Sander told me, “Running is healthy, no reason to be alarmed. If you had 20,000 people walk around a golf course I’m sure you’d have five die.” A runner dying during a marathon does make for a better headline than when a pedestrian collapses on the street.  If you do the math, the results are not as dramatic as headlines may have us believe: The London Marathon, which usually has a field of well over 30,000 each April, has had only nine deaths since 1981. Twenty-seven years, nearly a million people and only nine deaths? Not too bad.

Javier Timerman, an Upper East Side financier, says, “Everyone tells me running is not good for me, apart from my running coach.” Have we become so fixated with the sport that we don’t see the dangers? The body is basically a construction of muscle fiber and bones; they have to be exercised and strengthened, and some say that running, pound for pound, is the best workout to achieve this objective.

It’s true that running is not for everyone. Injuries and pains are more often caused by incorrect shoes or muscle imbalances than by the body’s inability to run. Maybe you can’t be a sprinter, and a Carl Lewis can’t be a world-class marathoner, but there is usually a distance for everyone. I believe that running is, for most, a natural movement of the body. Bear in mind each of us has differing limits to physical capabilities, and we shouldn’t try to push our bodies if they reject our training. Warning signs are: lack of appetite, headaches, nausea or interrupted sleep.

Nevertheless, every incident involving an athlete becomes fodder for those wishing to downplay the sport. Alberto Salazar, 50, another winner of the NYC Marathon, has recently suffered a series of heart problems causing more worry about the long-term effects of running. Stuart Calderwood, 50, has been training seriously as a distance runner since the age of 14, averaging approximately 80 miles per week since 1972. “Running your whole life does seem to slow the aging process,” he says. “I feel pretty much the same as I did when I was 30.” It just goes to show that everyone’s body is different, and to generalize a whole sport by slapping a “danger” sign on it is unrealistic and unfair.

Surely, with over 500 marathons a year in the U.S. alone, and with the rapidly rising popularity of the sport, the odd rare death is going to become more common. Sadly, these freak tragedies are a part of life, as they are a part of sport, but they are not an excuse to stop pounding the pavement. Just use common sense, watch your health and do what’s right for your body while you run.

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