Reflections on a tragedy

During the 2008 US Olympic Marathon Trials, Ryan Shay dropped dead just past the five-mile marker. According to subsequent media speculation the damage to Shay’s heart was so profound and sudden that he may very well have been dead before he hit the ground.

Shay’s passing was a tragedy and in the following weeks the inherent dangers of the marathon, whatever they might be, were put, justifiably, under a microscope.

Unsurprisingly the tragic death of Emma Van Nostrand at the recent GoodLife Marathon in Toronto has detonated a similar reckoning. Statistically, running 42km is incredibly safe and the chances of dying in an event of this duration are miniscule. According to a 2012 John Hopkins study on mortality during and immediately following the marathon, athletes stood a .75 in 100 000 chance of dying. This number remained static despite the surge of athletes engaged in running this distance over the last 10 years. Athletes, statistically, are exponentially more likely to get killed driving to and from the race.

While the marathon isn’t usually life threatening, it is challenging in a way that is as hard to define as the reasoning that goes in to running one in the first place. To those who have become lost in the training that such an event demands, the marathon is, at its core, the very antithesis of moderation. Van Nostrand’s motivation to run this distance remains equally opaque but what is certain is that her drive to train and her determination to contend in this event made her different not only from most of her peers but also just about anybody else in a culture that has become dangerously sedentary.

According to John Ratey, physician and author of the book, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain young people will spend anywhere from four to six hour per day either playing video games or interacting on social networking sites.

In an era where too many young people are inactive, Van Nostrand, chose instead to test her endurance and character in a contest that stretches back to the dawn of western civilization. Her death is an unmitigated tragedy and perhaps, in the weeks to come, a better understanding of how this could happen to someone in the prime of her life will become clear. In the meantime, it is Van Nostrand’s courage and spirit that should be venerated.