When I sign up for an event, I just assume that things like water, ambulance, and medical needs. That's scary.

That's so very sad. I couple of years ago, I organized a 5K fun run for our elementary school - real small scale, like 100 people or so, but I was told I had to have an ambulance either at the event or on standby meaning I had to get in touch with our local fire dept. and let them know exactly what was going on so they would be prepared. I was also told by the county how many policemen I would need and for how long. And just for good measure, I asked one of the parents who is a pediatrician to volunteer and be on hand just in case. I'm very surprised that the race was allowed to go off without the proper security measures in place.

I think that a contributing factor to some race directors not feeling urgency in setting up the safest possible environment for the participants is the strong legal liability protection offered by the waivers that we sign at those events.

We do assume the risk legally speaking. But at the same time, this puts an honor system on the race directors to provide as good of a medical response team as they want to afford to.

You can easily look up quality ratings for hotels, airlines, restaurants, almost any electronic appliance but when it comes to triathlon races, there are no good sources of safety ratings, especially the non-Ironman branded ones, it's hard to tell which ones are well organized and which ones will be spotty.

This is extremely sad news.

I skipped out on the olympic at Pac. Crest this year and decided to do a century instead. During the century there was great support from police and paramedics and while I was riding I was thinking about who pays for this support. Do the race directors have to provide the money to pay for the support they receive, or does the local government pay for it and plan on recouping the money from stimulation to the local economy that these races bring? I don’t want to form a negative opinion of the R.D. if they are not the ones responsible for paying for or supplying the support.

I read the brief account about this tragedy. Does any one have anymore information about what caused this man's death? Heart attack?

I'm assuming this is a USAT sanctioned event, right? I'm surprised they don't require having medics available as part of their sanctioning..... that would make the most sense to me.

How very sad.

Although we sign the waivers which prevents a Race Director from any legal obligation on our part, almost every park, county or township has requirements for these sort of things for any public gathering. Clearly he/she was in violation there and they could hold the RD liable.

As TriSooner said, it puts perspective on things.

This is awful. Simply tragic news. One piece of solace that I could think of is that the athlete died doing something they loved and leading an active and challenging lifestyle, which if you ask me, means that they were really living.

I think it goes without saying I'll be searching for the EMT crews before my next race.

The RD's I have known have paid for police and medic/ambulance support. Often it affects the choice of course, since how many intersections have to be covered by police can affect the cost. One race I know decided to avoid all that and use a public bike path (no intersections = no police cost). Unfortunately, they couldn't block off the path to traffic from kids, bikes, people walking dogs, etc. As I almost got clotheslined by a woman on one side of the path with a poodle on the other, I vowed not to race any more cheaply-done races! I know I will personally call and check out ambulance and medical support for any future races. A medical emergency could happen to anyone in an event like this, and appropriate medical care is important. Now if it was a race like many urban ones, a 911 calll could bring medical care in an instant. But a rural race far from medical support is a different matter.

USAT Sanctioned events must have medical personnel on site before the race can begin. From the RD Checklist:

**The following five items must be in place before the race begins**
-Lifeguards and swim safety mechanisms are in place
-Medical personnel are on-site and in place
-On-course law enforcement are in place or confirmed ready
-The transition area is secure and the race course from swim to TA is set up
-The event timer is present and equipment ready to start

I know we all sign the waivers and accept the inherent risk of the sport, but that won't let the event off the hook if they get sued. They do discourage us from bringing an action becuase we all remember signing them, but if I remember right from law school, it is not too hard to nullify these as contracts and they wont protect the event from a negligence claim.

As racers, we do have a responsibility to make sure we are up to the task and racing safe, but the event does have a responsibility to properly support the event they put on.

I am scheduled to do this RD's next race that is again at another rural location. I will definitely be checking to see if he has appropriate medical personnel on staff.

Didn't go to law school, but majored in Recreation Administration (not joking) and event planning 101 is that waivers don't matter if you are negligent... or perhaps at all.

This is the time to remind all of your "healthy" or otherwise male friends and relatives in their late 40's to 60's to get their hearts checked out. It doesn't matter how much you workout during the week, how fast you can swim/bike/run or how well you eat, clogged arteries can still occur and lead to heart attacks. You should definitely have a workup done with a cardiologist so you can avoid incidences like this at Pac Crest. Because even if there had been medics on the scene he still might not have lived if his arteries were that diseased. They'd have to be with the end result that occured.

Also, for the ladies of the same age range - our symptoms are not as typical as the men's. Women will experience upper back pain and/or heart burn which makes it even more important for women to be worked up by a cardiologist as well. Although, some women may experience the same symptoms as men.

And if you do have any of the above symptoms, you get your buns over to the ER immediately! Time saved is heart muscle saved. Basically the longer you let the symptoms go, the more of your heart muscle dies and goes to waste and you CAN'T get it back.

Ask your physician about taking an aspirin a day. Also check into Red Yeast Rice capsules at the health food stores. It's the active ingredient in Lipitor that keeps your cholesterol down if it's high.

That concludes your daily health message from your mama nurse, Toni.

I contacted the RD's for the HIM I'm doing this weekend - Desert Half IM - up in BC and this was their response:

Hi Toni,

Actually we had not heard anything about what happened at Pacific Crest yet though we are familiar with what occurred there in 2005. An awful situation.

At our races we hire out 2 BC Ambulances which are staffed by two certified ambulance attendants and are fully stocked ambulances. These are the ambulances that are used throughout the Province. This is an added expense but one that we are very happy to pay for each year as it money well spent and guarantees that these ambulances are available for there race and will not get called away on race day! Both ambulances are at the swim until final swimmer is out of the water. we have a 2 loop swim course as I feel that it is safer than a one loop course.

Once swim course is clear one ambulance stays at the finish line while the other is out on the bike course. Once the bike course is cleared this ambulance then travels the run course.

Dr Garnet Tarr and crew are at the finish, right near the swim, for the entire day and work closely with BC Ambulance and our communications team.

If you have any further questions don't hesitate to call or email us this week. I will be available for one on one questions after the pre-race meeting Saturday night.

Hope this helps and thanks for racing with us.

Joe

Outback Events Ltd.

Nice response and timely. Just glad there will be dedicated medics there.

Here's the link to the article above.

I seem to write this several times a year now.
Just a reminder: The only moment you have, is right now.
Everyday you wake up on this side of the dirt is a good day.
It's sad when this happens especially someone so young and fit and full of life.
In perspective though: (And it took awhile to dig this up) The average daily death rate in the U.S. is
8.2 per 1,000 according to the CDC. That means that if you get 1,000 folks together from all walks of life, at random, of various ages and levels of fitness...there is a good chance that by the end on the day 8 of them will have died. While that seems like a lot it's just under 3 million a year. 2005 (the most current year for the stats) is just under that number. That's an average now,in some areas it's much lower in some areas it's much higher...
Over the years I can't tell you how many events I've been to where someone has died...including someone I was doing CPR on some years ago at the Colonial 1/2 Mary in Williamsburg. Two years ago two men died running the MCM. People die all the time at events and it has nothing to do with RD's and medical tents and adequate medical precautions. It's just a part of life.
We are shocked because our sport seems itself to be a celebration of life...and how rude when death intrudes.
Hug those you love and never go to bed angry at anyone...
Death waits for no one and doesn't care if there is an ambulance near by.

Not having emergency medical staff on hand is inconceivably negligent! Even if there is a hospital a few miles away, triathlons are not always very accessible to just drive into. Traffic gets pretty backed up on surrounding roads, and even if the ambulance can get through without much difficulty it would add extra risk to other racers. There are already enough crashes and close calls in races without the panic of having to pull over for an incoming ambulance! That is a travesty... absolutely devastating. At the same time, I feel really bad for the RD too. I wouldn't want to have something like that hanging on my shoulders.