Phila. marathoners may be thinking of Detroit
Friday, November 20th, 2009
By: Elizabeth Fiedler
efiedler@whyy.org
The thousands of runners who hit the streets this weekend in the Philadelphia Marathon may be worrying about some of their fellow runners. The recent deaths of three people at the Detroit Marathon have some experts warning athletes before they hit the pavement.
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It's not just jocks and exercise fanatics who run marathons, says Dr. Matthew DeCaro, a cardiologist at Thomas Jefferson University.
He says a national campaign to get fit has pushed a wider variety of people to run marathons.
DeCaro: Some of these people may have risk factors from the congenital perspective that make them higher risk for developing complications but especially now that the spectrum is shifting toward an older population of patients, many of whom would never have been active like this before, they've been brewing problems under the hood and just did not know it. So they're at risk for having this come out during that heavy exertion.
A Philadelphia Marathon spokesperson says no special medical precautions are being taken this year, because officials believe they already have a strong medical support system in place.