AI6YR BenABC News:Heat advisory set to take effect during LA Marathon
*** So, personal story here: my son is a flight medic/Search and Rescue, and there was a half marathon here in our area this year. Most of the runners in the half marathon probably didn't take heed, but there was a mass casualty incidence where many people got heat illnesses (multiple ambulances called). One of the runners collapsed far up on the trail, and had to be medevac'd out by helicopter. That runner died. So... heat during a marathon... not a small matter.
Jack the Waterlogged Count@ai6yr The line of ambulances waiting to commence rescue always rivals the field of racers at the Badwater ultra. (I can attest the two aid tents filled up pretty early the one time I attended)
🏴🏳⚧🏴☠I was a safety coordinator at my last job. one component was the effects of heat exposure. I learned a lot but what really taught me about how the human body responds to high temperatures was Jeff Goodell's The Heat Will Kill You First. He describes in vivid detail exactly what happens inside your body at high temps. It's all bad but how the human body attempts to cope is fascinating. Also, Rhabdomyolysis is horrible and can affect anyone. Your level of fitness will not prevent it.
nshrubs@coolcalmcollected @ai6yr This was always the message to Grand Canyon hikers when I lived in Flagstaff & it was ignored by a large number of hikers, most often younger or older males.
hiker Dan Becker filmed himself getting rhabdo and it's after effects. it looks excruciating.
(there's a follow up episode that will be in the suggested video side bar which should be watched as well)
I got 🚨RESCUED🚨 hiking the Grand Canyon.. Here's what happened..
@coolcalmcollected @ai6yr Ugh! I know this has happened more than a few times to PCT hikers - most often the ultralight hikers who are trying to do 25-30 miles a day without enough rest & fuel. Seems like it happens the most in the Sierras & the North Cascades area (like section K!), where there is a lot of altitude gain & loss each day.
Darwin Woodka@Nshrubs @coolcalmcollected @ai6yr
I hiked the canyon with my dad and brother in my teens, we were hiking up the north rim, huffing and puffing and stopping often with our packs, my brother just walked up quickly since he lived in Flagstaff at the time. As we got to the rim, some runners came down past us, no packs, no shirts, no hiking shoes. We kind of laughed, it was funny, but I can see in a heat wave people would get into serious trouble there.
@darwinwoodka @coolcalmcollected @ai6yr Some of the Search & Rescue guys used to run rim-to-rim-to-rim about once a month for training/conditioning purposes when I lived in Flagstaff. I'd also sometimes see them running up the road to Inner Basin & hiking up Humphreys (12,6K) or going up Snowbowl road - so running at 8000-10,000 ASL, then hiking up to almost 13K. Difference is they were ALWAYS prepared.
Human 3500@Nshrubs
I saved a guy's life in the Grand Canyon. We had hiked down a ways and had turned to come back up. We'd stop and rest and drink water every so often so we'd see the same hikers passing us time and time again.
One guy was struggling more and more as we saw him so when he caught up with us one time, i told him i was taking his pack and would hike it out.
He said no. A woman yelled at him and another couple with them agreed that he needed to surrender his pack. So he did.
We hiked out with the other woman and i gave her his pack at the top.
We met up with the four of them at El Tovar later that night. They had hiked rim to rim and camped over night at the bottom. He wasn't eating enough food on the climb out.
@darwinwoodka @coolcalmcollected @ai6yr
@human3500 @Nshrubs @coolcalmcollected @ai6yr
Glad you were there to help out!
@darwinwoodka
Thanks. I'd hope most would help.
I didn't dig into his problem during the ordeal. They had lots of food - he just didn't eat on the trail for some reason. I think i just assumed he was out of shape.
I figured once we were at the top the woman would arrange help if needed. It was some time ago and cell phones were not ubiquitous.
@Nshrubs @coolcalmcollected @ai6yr
@human3500 @Nshrubs @darwinwoodka @coolcalmcollected Glad you were able to help out. Rim to rim... yikes.
@ai6yr
Even the descent is a killer. Hard to imagine staying overnight without a hot tub to really let the aches set in, and then climb a mountain out the next day.
But i understand there's no shortage of people wanting to do it.
@Nshrubs @darwinwoodka @coolcalmcollected
@human3500 @ai6yr @Nshrubs @darwinwoodka
if hubris could be a source of power, a la monsters Inc and fear, it would run everything on the planet for the rest of time
Rich Stein (he/him)@ai6yr @human3500 @Nshrubs @darwinwoodka @coolcalmcollected
When I lived in LA,we planned a great rim to rim weekend(!) adventure — two cars, two crews, met at the bottom and swapped keys (no idea why we didn't exchange spares at the outset — youth wasted on the young... 🤪). We all (five of us?) met back in Las Vegas, showered and and slept in a cheap room before driving back to the coast in time for work on Monday.
Anyway, hydrate, HYDRATE! Martin did, Kamau did not. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-15627613/nathan-martin-la-marathon-win.html
Nail-biting moment American surges past exhausted rival in final strides of LA Marathon to snatch last-second victory
The long-distance runner, from Michigan took two hours, 11 minutes and 18 seconds to run the 26.2-mile course on Sunday, but nobody expected the result to come down to a split-second.
Giflian@coolcalmcollected @ai6yr came back to find this comment to say thanks for the book recommendation (even if it wasn't directed at me), I'm listening to the audiobook now
Kevin Russell
Cadmus@ai6yr There is a lot of scrutiny (ire, disappointment, bad press etc) on race organizers for not cancelling events during high heat weather impacts.
Raven667@camless @ai6yr https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4AhABManTw the 1904 St Loius Olympic marathon was the worst, i saw this recently and you can too
RAT POISON AND BRANDY: THE 1904 ST. LOUIS OLYMPIC MARATHON.
Patrick W1PAC@ai6yr In 2013, the Boston Marathon essentially upgraded all the first aid stations into "field hospitals" after a hot marathon the year before. Originally after a warm year in 2004 in which 196 runners were transported due to the heat they upgraded 4 stations.
MsMerope@ai6yr @W1PAC
thankfully the marathon they have up here is run in December.
otherwise it would be a cluster.
Many of our [volunteer] medics refuse to work this event because the "aid stations" are basically stocked with bandaids, vaseline and tongue depressors. And the organizers get pissy if we bring our own equipment.
We haul more gear than that when we are "stand by medical" at a Christmas tree lightning.
That's about the extent of my knowledge on the med side of things, I'm more knowledgeable about the radio side of things.
In that there are essentially 3 radio networks going on the marathon which is public safety, commercial and amateur.
Public safety is mostly interoperable if I recall, most of it is on the state trunk system I believe, plus MEMA distributes radios to the EMT communicators to make the ambulance calls if needed.
Commerical, provided by a company called DC Rentals, which provides the race organizers with their own trunk every year, the medical division supervisors are on this system.
Amateur is backup for ambulances if needed and provides hourly med stats to course net control and provides situation awareness for distressed runners. We also provide services at start and finish along with runner transport for those who drop out.