When a marathon goes wrong, sometime you can get lucky.....

Here's an incredible story from the Queenstown International Marathon, via Stuff.co.nz

Australian doctor comes to the rescue during Queenstown Marathon

Jo McKenzie-McLean

Emergency physician Domhnall Brannigan based in Hobart, Tasmania, who is attending an emergency medicine conference in Queenstown, found himself helping a fellow marathon runner who collapsed during the race on Saturday. 

The Queenstown Marathon took an unexpected turn for an emergency physician who stopped to help another runner who collapsed during the race.

Dr Domhnall Brannigan, who is based in Hobart, Tasmania, is in Queenstown attending the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine. 

"I took the opportunity to do the Queenstown Marathon while I was here because it was the day before the conference. This was my first marathon, in fact, I only decided to do it when booking my flights for the conference. It was 12 weeks before the conference and I saw the ads when i was on the Air New Zealand website and thought 'why not?'."

He had the typical nerves and excitment at the start line, and was "gunning for a solid four-hour" time. 

"I went out a bit too quickly as most people do probably. I was pretty happy with my pace and I had managed the first half marathon in pretty good time. I had just done first hilly section and was coming along a straight piece of road and my race took a slightly unexpected turn. I ran past a young man who was looking a little bit unsteady on his feet, which was surprising that early in the race I guess. But it was a warm day, I'm not sure what was going on but he didn't look great.

"As I passed him I looked at his face and he looked pale and I said, 'are you OK?'. He looked right at me and said, 'I'm OK'. So I thought OK and kept running because you see people in these events struggling and most ultimately look OK. I was about 150 metres further on and heard a shout for help. I glanced over my shoulder and there were four or five people already there and I thought, that's fine, they don't need me, so I kept running. Then I heard a second call and it sounded much more urgent and I thought I'm going to have to help so I stopped and ran back. There was a young man...he was in a bad way." 

The man was lying face down completely unconscious, had struck his head and was obstructing his airway, Brannigan said.

"He had an obstructed airway with a locked jaw and wasn't really breathing very effectively but he still had a good pulse...I placed him in the recovery position and held his airway open with a jaw thrust manoeuvre which any first-aider will know. I had no equipment with me so I tried to keep his airway open as best I could providing a jaw thrust."

Brannigan got a bystander to make a call to emergency services, sent messages to the aid station and co-ordinated other people there to help, he said.

"Several people came forward with skills that could have been helpful but it turned out because we didn't have much equipment there wasn't much they could do either. I actually had two anaesthetists, a cardiologist and registered nurse at the scene within a few minutes. A couple were in the marathon and a couple were spectators."

After spending 30 minutes at the scene, he turned around and finished the second half marathon.

  - Stuff

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/86704864/australian-doctor-comes-to-the-rescue-during-queenstown-marathon

So Domhnall was one of the doctors attending my organisation's conference in Queenstown and I was lucky enough to catch up with him and get a bit more of the back story to his 'rescue mission' in the marathon.....

The good news is that the young man survived but was still suffering concussion a few days later. Apparently the young guy had run a few 5kays and had decided to have crack at the marathon, with no training plan, no preparation and no idea - he was a disaster waiting to happen somewhere on the 42km course, especially as he went out hard and fast (at 5k pace)!!! Lucky that Domhnall was around when things suddenly went seriously wrong for this young man....

More running in Queenstown

22-23 November 2016

In previous blogposts, I have mentioned that, when I am travelling for work, I like to pack my running gear and get out for an early morning run in cities I am visiting. So being in Queenstown for a week, for my organisation's annual conference, gave me some great running opportunities, as well as the chance to run the HM in Queenstown International Marathon.

Instead of running past impressive buildings and iconic capital city landmarks, the Queenstown Trail, beside Lake Wakatipu, had me running past glorious views of the turquoise green lake and spectacular Remarkables.

An easy "5k" run around Queenstown Gardens and docks, a coupe of days after the HM:

Then out and back to the mouth of the Kawarau River, for a fast 14k:

Loved it - could run this trail any day not not tire of it!!!

 

Queenstown Half

19 November 2016

The annual conference for the organisation I work for happens to be in Queenstown, New Zealand this year and (un)fortunately it coincides with the Queenstown International Marathon! While my organisation has been concerned about availibity of accommodation and venues for the conference, due to the clash of events, I have only been able to see an upside - being able to start a busy week working at the conference (away from my family and friends) by signing on to run one of the events in the Queenstown Marathon.

  

Having recently run the Sydney Marathon and half marathon at Melbourne Marathon, and with a busy week at the conference ahead, I choose to register for the half marathon here in Queenstown. 

The course was point to point, so we were bused out to the starting area at Speargrass Flat (about halfway to Arrowtown, where the marathon start point was located). This transfer was very well organised - I walked down from my hotel (after pre-fuelling on a banana, Up&Go and coffee with glucose) to the Queenstown Recreation Ground at about 6:30am and was able to get straight on to a bus. 

Bananas were probably the biggest import to Queenstown this weekend! I had visited the local Big 4 supermarket yesterday specifically to get bananas along with a few other pre- and post-race supplies (Up&Go, chocolate milk and yoghurt). The supermarket had a huge stack of banana boxes and was full of people (including me) with 2 bananas in their shopping basket. The girl at the checkout wished me well for the marathon - heh, how did she know....

Glorious blue skies but quite cold at the start area, and had a bit of a wait for the 8am start, so I was glad that I had gone with a long sleeved top. The starting shute was seeded, based on estimated finish time and, while there wasn't a lot of race marshals, this was well signed with runners seeming to get into the right sections as I didn't encounter any problems with people stopping to walk, in front of me, in the first few kms of the race.

The course was mostly flat on a mix of road and smooth hard packed trails, which made it interesting. Started on the road for first 4-5kms or so, which meant the field could spread out a bit before we hit the trails. It was easy running so I was able to take in the views, which were spectacular with lots of remnant snow on the nearby mountains. The first section of the trail started with a steep downhill and rocky under foot, so I was very cautious of taking a tumble or, worst, spraining an ankle; but this soon flattened out to smooth trail alongside the Shotover River. The trail was wide enough for two or three runners, which was fine at this stage of the race, and I was able to maintain a good pace for the rest of the race.  

With the sun out, I was beginning to wonder about my choice of long sleeve top, but there were plenty of aid stations along the route so I kept well hydrated and tipped water on my head and back to stay cool. Back onto road for a bit then rejoined the trail beside the Kawarau River. A steep pinch at the 9-10km mark was a real test, which reduced a lot of people to a walk, but I just managed to keep running all the way up but was blowing hard at the top. 

Near Franktown, we joined the trail along side Lake Wakatipu and followed this all the way into Queenstown, skirting around the Queenstown Gardens, through the streets of Queenstown to finish at the Queenstown Recreation Ground. Huge piles of bananas, bottles of poweraid and water was available at the finish - which was great! 

Fantastic course - interesting and the views were spectacular - and a really well organised event. My time was 1:44:26, which was not a PB but I was happy with this, as I had really enjoyed the run and managed to sneak in under 1:45 (which was kind of my goals for this race).