Honoring the fallen: Marathon deaths take center stage
Edward F. Hahn
Issue date: 11/14/07 Section: Opinions
The longest distance running event in the Olympics is 26.2 miles, also known as a marathon.
This year, long-distance runners Larry Altneu, 46, Chad Schieber, 35, and Ryan Shay, 28, died while in the pursuit of the Olympic test of running endurance.
Shay, a four-time state cross-country champion from Central Lake Michigan, was also a standout at the University of Notre Dame.
He won the NCAA 10,000 meters in 2001 and the national marathon championships in 2003 before his death Nov. 3 during the men's Olympic marathon trials in New York City.
Shay, who had recently married his college sweetheart Alicia, collapsed midway between the five and six mile points and was later pronounced dead at New York's Upper East Side Hospital.
In an ironic twist, the Trials Organizing Committee had endeavored to maximize spectator accessibility by staging the U.S. Men's Olympic Trials in New York's Central Park the day before the New York Marathon. Thus thousands of fans who packed Central Park became witnesses to the tragedy.
America's 135 most-talented marathon runners had qualified for this year's Olympic marathon trials.
Now one of them is dead.
Also from Michigan, Schreiber was a 12-year Midland Police Department veteran and last year's Police Officer of the Year. He was a husband and father of three.
Schreiber collapsed at the 19-mile mark of the Chicago marathon on Oct. 7, and was later pronounced dead at Cook County Hospital.
Altneu, an Anaheim Hills resident, finished the Orange County marathon on Jan. 7 in 4:01:41 before collapsing just beyond the finish line.
I was running nine seconds behind him.
After I crossed the finish line, I observed paramedics administering chest compressions to him. Five minutes later, I watched from the post-event recovery area as his dead body was being loaded into the back of an ambulance.
Why did these runners die?
The official cause of death in Schreiber's case was a mitral valve prolapse. At age 14, Shay had been diagnosed with an enlarged heart but the official cause of his death remains undetermined.
Doctors attest that Altneu's heart stopped after he crossed the finish line, but little else is known about his case.
These three men were in excellent condition. Their deaths shocked the running community.
All athletes constantly challenge their own abilities, but these inexplicable losses call for introspection. In particular, Altneu was close to my age, within 10 seconds of my time, and, like me, had a wife and children.
His death requires that I do some soul-searching.
During the last 23 years, I have run in 93 marathons in the United States, Asia, Canada and Europe.
Of the more than 300,000 marathoners who participated in these same events, only one runner died.
After thinking it over long and hard, I have resolved that I can best honor the memory of fallen marathoners by continuing to do what they most enjoyed.
My wife Yuri married a distance runner. She agrees with me that the long-term health benefits of distance running outweigh the risk of a fatal outcome.
A longtime family friend of Altneu put it best.
Kim Brown stated: "He died doing what he loved and he met his ultimate goal." Brown's assessment is an uncanny metaphor.
American marathoners are on the threshold of a major resurgence on the world stage. Now isn't the time to extinguish the flame.
Edward F. Hahn can be reached atccclarion@hotmail.com
This year, long-distance runners Larry Altneu, 46, Chad Schieber, 35, and Ryan Shay, 28, died while in the pursuit of the Olympic test of running endurance.
Shay, a four-time state cross-country champion from Central Lake Michigan, was also a standout at the University of Notre Dame.
He won the NCAA 10,000 meters in 2001 and the national marathon championships in 2003 before his death Nov. 3 during the men's Olympic marathon trials in New York City.
Shay, who had recently married his college sweetheart Alicia, collapsed midway between the five and six mile points and was later pronounced dead at New York's Upper East Side Hospital.
In an ironic twist, the Trials Organizing Committee had endeavored to maximize spectator accessibility by staging the U.S. Men's Olympic Trials in New York's Central Park the day before the New York Marathon. Thus thousands of fans who packed Central Park became witnesses to the tragedy.
America's 135 most-talented marathon runners had qualified for this year's Olympic marathon trials.
Now one of them is dead.
Also from Michigan, Schreiber was a 12-year Midland Police Department veteran and last year's Police Officer of the Year. He was a husband and father of three.
Schreiber collapsed at the 19-mile mark of the Chicago marathon on Oct. 7, and was later pronounced dead at Cook County Hospital.
Altneu, an Anaheim Hills resident, finished the Orange County marathon on Jan. 7 in 4:01:41 before collapsing just beyond the finish line.
I was running nine seconds behind him.
After I crossed the finish line, I observed paramedics administering chest compressions to him. Five minutes later, I watched from the post-event recovery area as his dead body was being loaded into the back of an ambulance.
Why did these runners die?
The official cause of death in Schreiber's case was a mitral valve prolapse. At age 14, Shay had been diagnosed with an enlarged heart but the official cause of his death remains undetermined.
Doctors attest that Altneu's heart stopped after he crossed the finish line, but little else is known about his case.
These three men were in excellent condition. Their deaths shocked the running community.
All athletes constantly challenge their own abilities, but these inexplicable losses call for introspection. In particular, Altneu was close to my age, within 10 seconds of my time, and, like me, had a wife and children.
His death requires that I do some soul-searching.
During the last 23 years, I have run in 93 marathons in the United States, Asia, Canada and Europe.
Of the more than 300,000 marathoners who participated in these same events, only one runner died.
After thinking it over long and hard, I have resolved that I can best honor the memory of fallen marathoners by continuing to do what they most enjoyed.
My wife Yuri married a distance runner. She agrees with me that the long-term health benefits of distance running outweigh the risk of a fatal outcome.
A longtime family friend of Altneu put it best.
Kim Brown stated: "He died doing what he loved and he met his ultimate goal." Brown's assessment is an uncanny metaphor.
American marathoners are on the threshold of a major resurgence on the world stage. Now isn't the time to extinguish the flame.
Edward F. Hahn can be reached atccclarion@hotmail.com
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
julie ledford
posted 8/17/08 @ 4:52 PM PST
Schreiber:
as you called him was more then a runner he was the best man i ever meet a god loving man a family man and the only role model i have had as the kinda man i would have love to have in my life / the kinda man you hope youo kids marry some day. (Continued…)
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