Man dies after finishing half marathon.

In October 2004, somebody died 1 kilometer away from the finish line during his half marathon. For those that don't know, a half-marathon is a distance of 21.1K. I ran that same half marathon last year, and it was a cold, windy, and wet day. Quite frankly, it was a horrible way for him to die, and as a runner, I think the most tragic thing was that he never crossed the finish line.

It's a year later, and I didn't run the half marathon this year. Instead, I organized an 8-person relay team to run the complete marathon. That's about 5K for each person. It's the morning after, and I have just found out through a CBC News Article that someone else has died while running the half-marathon this year! It's tragic, but the difference here is that he crossed the finish line and died shortly after.

I don't know why, but this makes all the difference for me. I mean, he didn't die trying to do something like last year's guy. He died accomplishing a goal he set, and the last thing he heard were cheering crowds as he crossed the finish line. It's easier for his family to find closure this way that if he didn't finish in the first place.

On that note, I have to say that long distance runners have to know their limits. I'm not a great long distance runner, and I push the line sometimes. I mean, I ran/walk a half marathon with no training in september. It's a terrible thing to do and I was in real pain, but at no point did I put my life in danger. The great and terrible thing about running races is that there's immense peer pressure. You are running with thousands of people, and a lot of them will be better than you. You want to keep up with them, or at least try to. People are cheering for you to keep on going. But you know what? As much as I hate to say it, there are some people that should be encouraged not to run, or to stop running in the middle of a race. I know from painful experience that you can't fake a marathon or even a half-marathon. You have to train and be in proper shape for something like this!

The Boston Marathon has a qualification requirement. You have to run another marathon with a time of at least 3h15 to run. I think that half-marathons should require that you run at least two 10K's beforehand. Possibly three 10K's. I'm serious about this! If you're going to try to do a long distance run, you should have a few 10K's under your belt before you even think about it. Similarly, the full marathon should require you run 2 or 3 half marathons beforehand.

A lot of races also have early-bird options where slow marathon runners can get a head start (1 to 2 hours) to finish there marathon. I don't think they should have that. If you're in that category, I don't think you should be running a full marathon. Some people won't agree with me on this, but I saw some early-bird runners yesterday, and some (not all) of them looked like they were in rough shape after 15K. (Okay, during my half-marathon this year, I was in rough shape after 15K too, but I wasn't trying to run a full marathon!)

That's my 2 cents on this. It sounds pretty drastic, but I think it will encourage people (including myself) to properly train for these things. Proper training means less people dying. Less people dying is a good thing.