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well done on the race.
really sad that about the chap dying, seems to be all too frequent an occurrence, there really should be some kind of medical sign off/pre qual for endurance activities happens far too frequently for my liking, I can't help feeling that people with serious underlying medical issues that were at least aware of them could manage them, or at least make some sensible decisions, rather than jumping in freezing water triggering a heart attack, epileptic fit etc. and dying quite often when they've taken up the sport to "get healthy".
Sainsburys_Ed-
Screening is far from foolproof (old article but still relevant): https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2012/mar/24/fabrice-muamba-heart-screenings
It's still rare enough that the few deaths there are don't seem to be statistically significant. It's just more likely to be in the news than if the same person had had a heart attack at home whilst climbing the stairs or doing some gardening.
I had a screening about 10 years ago (when I was still 'young' enough to qualify for one via the CRY [Cardiac Risk in the Young] charity) which just ruled out anything so obvious that I would have needed to stop there and then. It certainly doesn't mean that I'm risk free now, especially as I have a good number of years of (half arsed) endurance events (and subsequent changes to physiology) since then.
Population wide, the health benefits of "getting healthy" significantly outweigh the increased chances of a heart attack. Although at the individual level it's obviously a different matter for those that are the unlucky ones.
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I have two friends who've died swimming the Channel in recent years - they were both seasoned ultra-athletes, both had medical assessments and sign-off before they got in the water. There's no indication that the 43-yr old was a newbie either, or that any screening would have helped.
Greenbank
kl
The SWYD sprint was good fun this morning. I got round in just under 1hr30. It was quite a slow course but i felt very good for the swim and bike, not so much for the run if i’m honest. I need to get some running training in before the next one.
On a very sad note a 43 year old man had a heart attack in the water and died on the beach. It was an incredibly sobering thing to experience, just horrendous.