[dm03514]

“The most common diagnosis associated with sudden cardiac arrest was coronary artery disease.”

I wonder the fitness levels of the people that experienced cardiac arrests. Like were these first time runners that signed up to run a marathon?

[cj]

Short answer is "being in shape" (even for a marathon) doesn't guarantee you'll be free from heart disease.

[milesrout]

Biology is complicated. Nothing GUARANTEES anything.

Being in shape makes you far less likely to die or be injured by a heart attack than being a fat unhealthy pig. Anyone that refuses to accept this is living in denial.

Health matters, exercise matters, and life has random elements but is not random. Choices do have consequences.

[readthenotes1]

Distance running has, afaik, little to do with coronary artery disease (tho exercise can increase HDL some, it's only moderately protective and I recall that there are some studies that say that Marathon running actually is not healthful).

In my understanding of what happens during sudden arrest is that after having filled the artery wall tubing with as much plaque as it could stand, instead of ruptering through the outer wall , it collapses inwards, cutting off blood supply to the heart muscle.

[WalterBright]

> there are some studies that say that Marathon running actually is not healthful

I read about marathon runners saying it takes a month to recover from a marathon. That can't be healthy.

[js2]

I ran 16 marathons in 2016 as well as a 24-hour event where I completed 105 miles, then ran the Chicago marathon less than two weeks later.

I never felt healthier in my life than that year.

This is not medical advice, but the body is amazingly adaptable and can withstand some pretty high levels of stress if you build up to them slowly and are willing to back off when it tells you to.

[anal_reactor]

I do two hours of moderate cycling every day and I feel like fuck.

[AngryData]

Of course you gotta also consider how many under train for the marathon and essentially over commit themselves to the event when it does come along. But it definitely isn't healthy if they require more than a day or two of physical recovery after a physical event.