Marathon runner has heart attack, dies

The 49-year-old Mpls. man was an experienced runner with no history of heart disease

By Josephine Marcotty/Kent Youngblood
Star Tribune

George Spears loved to run and taught that love of the sport to his sons. His eldest, George Spears Jr., was running the Twin Cities Marathon with him on Sunday, but pulled ahead of his father early in the race.

He didn't know until after he had finished that his father had collapsed from an apparent heart attack at the 6-mile mark near Lake Calhoun. Spears, 49, of Minneapolis, died later at Hennepin County Medical Center.

He was a member of the Red Lake Band of Ojibwe, a social worker for Hennepin County and the father of seven children and many foster children.

"He followed a good path," said his daughter-in-law Meredith Morgan. "He liked running," and was a familiar sight on the running trails in south Minneapolis, she said.

It was the second death of a runner in the history of the marathon.

Spears, who ran his first Twin Cities marathon in 1987, had no known health problems, and had just had a physical, said Morgan.

He was treated on site within minutes of the attack by emergency technicians, and taken by ambulance to Hennepin County Medical Center.

Dr. Bill Roberts, medical director for the Twin Cities Marathon, said that people who have heart attacks at marathons usually appear to be in the peak of health.

He said that the risk of cardiac arrest for marathon runners is about 1 in 50,000 finishers. The risk of death is about 1 in 200,000 he said, citing information gleaned from the Twin Cities Marathon and the Marine Corps Marathon databases combined.

"We had a pretty good response time, so we're pretty confident we did all we could," he said. "But it does happen during marathons."

Morgan said Spears' wife, Melanie, and other family members were waiting for him at the 10-mile mark. And they waited until almost all the runners had gone by, but never saw him.

"She couldn't figure it out," Morgan said. "Then they came home and got the call."

Morgan said that Spears was widely known in the Indian community through his job working with Indian children, and because of the many relationships he had formed with foster children over the years. The family is trying to contact those closest to him, including his 15-year-old daughter, Chanella Spears, who doesn't live at home and has lost touch with the family.

The first death at the Twin Cities Marathon was in 1989 when a 40-year-old Bloomington man collapsed and died after crossing the finish line. It was his first marathon.

The number of heart attack deaths would most likely be much higher at such races if weren't for the number of external defibrillators that are now routine at such events. Roberts said there were close to 40 defibrillators, one at every aid station starting with the 11th one on the route on Sunday. In addition, there are five first-aid teams with defibrillators spread out over the course, and a golf cart operated by emergency technicians from Hennepin County Medical Center in the tighter areas of the course. An ambulance drove along with the runners.

Second runner collapsed

A second unidentified man also collapsed Sunday at 11:30 a.m. just short of the finish line. He was resuscitated with an external defibrillator machine that got his heart beating again, and was treated at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, race officials said.

But even with immediate emergency care, heart attacks are often fatal. Roberts said that research at the London marathon shows that about half of the runners who suffer sudden cardiac arrest die. Heart attacks outside of hospitals are one of the leading causes of death in the United States, killing nearly half a million people each year, half before they reach a hospital.

Roberts said that it was an unexpectedly busy day in the medical tent. The humidity was low, but the temperatures warmed quickly in the morning. He said there were about half a dozen people who were treated for heat exhaustion.

Results listed in Mpls. Star Tribune.

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