“I was attacked by an ostrich once. I also saw a man dying in front of me in a river in Panama from dehydration. He told me, ‘Tell your wife I love her.’ It was a horrible sight.”
That’s the word from Allie Bailey, an endurance runner with over 200 marathons and ultramarathons under her belt. She once saw a friend staggering under a bush during a 100-mile race, still wearing her clothes in 38-degree weather. Disarray is a symptom of heat stroke.
Despite these stories, Ally, 42, insists that endurance racing is not dangerous. In fact, she argues that we take a much bigger risk every day just by getting in our car to go shopping.
But there’s no denying that ultramarathoners and triathletes are exposed to a variety of dangers, including being hit by a bike, falling off a mountain, drowning in a lake, or simply becoming incapacitated in extreme conditions.
As runner Sabrina Pace Humphreys clung to the edge of the mountain and begged for her life, with frozen fingers and weak arms, she regretted taking part in a 2019 mountain race in the French Alps.
“It was one of the first mountain trails I’d ever run on. I’d trained and it was really fun, I was in good shape, but I was running on a very narrow, snowy trail and I lost my foot,” she told Metro.
“I clung on, screaming until my voice was hoarse, pleading for help. The snow was melting in my hands and my footing was threatening to give way. I was clinging on by my fingernails.”
With a 200-metre, nearly vertical drop beneath her feet, Sabrina thought of her family and wished she were home.
“It was really scary. I’ve never had anything like this happen before. I was probably only there for about five minutes but it felt like an eternity.”
Meanwhile, the runners ahead of her passed a 46-year-old mother of four who had resigned herself to death.
“Five male runners passed me as if I was invisible,” the running coach and personal trainer recalled. “I knew I couldn’t hold on much longer and no one was going to help me. As I was saying goodbye to my kids and husband, a sixth runner reached out and pulled me up with all his might, saving my life.”
Accidents are common in endurance racing and Sabrina knew she was lucky her name wasn’t added to the growing list of people who have lost their lives in natural disasters.
In March this year, one runner died in an ultramarathon in Vietnam, and last year two died in an Ironman in Cork. In May 2021, 21 ultramarathon runners were killed when high winds and freezing rain battered participants in a 60-mile ultramarathon in China’s Gansu province.
The majority of Ironman fatalities occur in the water, but alongside drowning, it’s the most tragic cause of death among extreme triathletes over the past two decades.
Online, a list of horrific causes of death includes stroke, heart attack, acute dehydration and hypoglycemia, multiple organ failure, bicycle accident or collision, and “being found unresponsive in the water.”
Brian Hanley, an athlete and consultant who has studied fatalities during gruelling races, lists accidents as one of many risks, alongside physiological problems and “common instances of cardiac death”.
His research found that since 1986, 171 people have died during Ironman events around the world: 122 swimming, 26 cycling, eight running, and 12 post-running, though the data was collected in 2021, so the actual numbers are undoubtedly higher.
“It’s common for people to get kicked in the head when they start group swimming, or fall when people are going too fast and biking downhill, or get hit by a car or truck,” said Brian, who divides his time between California and Idaho.
“Occasionally, an athlete in top form pushes themselves beyond their capabilities, but the top finishers at the Kona Ironman [Hawaii] I had to have emergency intestinal surgery a week later because my body had cut off the blood flow to my intestines in order to keep functioning.”
Brian, 67, an avid athlete and outdoor swimmer, volunteers at races and has seen firsthand the dangers competitors face, having himself suffered heatstroke during a race.
“One day, it was over 40 degrees. I was riding my bike and I ran out of water. It was so hot and there was no wind. I felt my body changing and realized what was happening,” he recalled. “I was 12 kilometers from the nearest town. I slowed down but didn’t stop. I knew if I stopped there there was a good chance I would die. I feel it. My body knows it and I had studied how people die from heat stroke.
“The problem was that if I stopped to sit or lie down, the ground would heat up even more. The sidewalk was probably 55 degrees Fahrenheit, which would be lethal. If I lay on the ground I would be cooked. I walked at as slow a pace as I could without falling over, so that a breeze of my own making would keep me going. I would enter an infinite time-space. After a while, I found a bookstore. I went inside and lay down to one side of the entrance, cooling off in the air conditioning. The aftereffects lasted for about a month.”
Brian urges people to train properly and be “smart” about competing.
“Be careful of heatstroke, stay hydrated, and replenish your electrolytes,” he advises.
For Keith Boyd, the hardest thing about ultramarathons is that they’re so hard. The 57-year-old ultramarathon runner holds the world record for having run from Cape Town, South Africa, to Cairo, Egypt, unscathed, despite braving kidnapping attempts and the devastation of a war zone.
Keith was attracted to triathlons because it is a race that provides a more well-rounded workout, working the many muscle groups involved in swimming, cycling and running.
He told Metro.co.uk: “Ironman racing is tough, so if the sea is choppy on race day and the swell is extra bad, so be it.”
“You sign up for an Ironman event because it’s a challenging fitness goal that will take months to achieve. There is no excuse for skipping your training each week. If you do, you will struggle on race day and may not even finish. In a shorter course event or marathon, you can skip a training day and still finish on race day. You can’t do that with an Ironman. There are no excuses.”
Sabrina, a veteran runner who took on the Marathon des Sables in the Sahara Desert eight years ago, claims that endurance races are safe as long as you train properly.
She didn’t start running until she was in her 30s, when a doctor recommended it to help her cope with postpartum depression. Since then, Sabrina has suffered from blistered and bleeding feet (which she says were more painful than childbirth), nerve damage, and nights spent running in “another cave of mental pain with nothing to see.”
“But as a mother of four and grandmother going through menopause, I’m fascinated by understanding what my body is capable of,” she says.
For Sabrina, a horrific accident in the mountains changed the course of her life: she finished the race and, on returning to the UK, founded the charity Black Trail Runners to increase diversity in the sport, because “I couldn’t help but think that if I’d been a white, blonde, blue-eyed woman, I might have gotten help sooner when I was dangling from that cliff”.
Allie, on the other hand, argues that we face much greater risks in our everyday lives: As a recovering alcoholic, she used to drink two bottles of wine before a 100-mile race — “sports wine,” as she called it, before she quit drinking.
“I owe my recovery from addiction and depression to the nature, problem-solving and mindfulness I learned in those hills,” the endurance runner, coach and author says.
Ally, from Leeds, who has run more than 200 marathons since taking up the sport 14 years ago, explains: “We live in a world where we don’t have time for our own thoughts. We distract ourselves in all sorts of ways, mainly using our phones – music, podcasts, Instagram.”
“Participating in something like an ultramarathon gives you a confidence boost that you can’t get anywhere else because you’re spending time alone in nature, taking care of yourself and forcing yourself to problem-solve.”
She added that ultramarathons offer a safe environment to test oneself because the race company looks after them. Her friends who got heatstroke or hypothermia were “totally OK” as they were quickly attended to by medical staff. If she falls on the course, the tracker will let her know if someone needs help.
Ally, author of There Is No Wall, says she feels euphoric after a race, then a dip for a few days, but when she comes out of it she feels a new sense of pride in her accomplishment, and adds that the risks far outweigh the benefits.
“I know of one person who died from a severe head injury in a bicycle accident at a Patagonia event. I don’t know anyone who has died from the heat. But I know plenty who have committed suicide due to depression or died in car accidents. And people die every day from obesity.”
“Ultramarathons give you confidence and tangible proof that you can do hard things. They make you healthier physically and mentally, which then spills over into every area of your life, including your relationships and careers. Because if you have the tools to get through a really tough endurance run, you have the tools to do anything.”
“Playing endurance sports is not dangerous. It gives you confidence, it empowers you and it can really change your life for the better.”
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