Run A Marathon And Drop Dead

... but they'll (probably) get you back!

First, the bad news: running a marathon can, in actuality, kill you. But, once you’ve accepted that, everything else is good news.

Good news #1: only 176 cardiac arrest victims were identified out of 29,311,597 marathon and half-marathon participants.

Good news #2: the case fatality rate from cardiac arrest during a race has dropped from 71% to 34%.

Good news #3: applies only to women, because the rate of death for women is a fifth that as for men.

Good news #4: the article is free on the JAMA site, and there’s a ton of interesting granular information regarding the cases identified, all the way down to specific autopsy findings:

Due to their methods, these are not completely definitive as to capturing every case, and they are limited to just races in the United States. But, these are thought-provoking data to peruse – especially for all the runners (and wannabe runners) out there.