death

The newspapers confirmed what I suspected as my daughter and I went by the paramedics doing CPR on an elderly guy in the middle of yesterday's Bolder Boulder 10K: The race had its first runner death in the 29 years of the race.

According to news reports, bike-riding medical personnel were at the guy's aid quickly, doctors running in the race stopped to help, and a paramedic crew was on the scene in minutes. But he still didn't make it.

I wonder if he was part of the Bravehearts running group of heart problem survivors that Simon mentioned last week.

Thank god for my wife. Moments after getting home from my 14 miler and writing what I did this morning, she reminded me that a few days ago I had agreed to go for a run this afternoon with Dr. Jerry... We met Jerry when we purchased his (now our) house just over three years ago, and he and his family have been wonderful friends ever since.

Jerry was a huge help on the medical front when I made my Badwater bid last year, so it made sense to pick his brain about things like hypothermia, "frozen lung", frostbite, and other lovely topics.. What was comforting about our chat while running the 4+ miles around Lake Merritt was that heat stroke (which I learned a lot about during the ramp up for Badwater last year) is surprisingly a lot like hypothermia. Not that I want to get anywhere close to either - it's just nice to be up on the "worst case scenario" in case my day doesn't go quite the way I want it to.