Roberts Provides Marathon Medical Coverage

October 2, 2011, marked the 30th anniversary of the Twin Cities Marathon.

Dubbed The Most Beautiful Urban Marathon in America®, the Twin Cities Marathon has grown into a weekend full of special events and activities for people of all ages.

A number of faculty, fellows, residents, medical students, and alumni volunteer with the medical team on race day, led by our own Bill Roberts, MD, MS.

Q&A with Roberts

How long have you served as Twin Cities Marathon medical director?

Twenty-five-plus years—I started working with the medical team as an organizer and finish line tent coordinator its inaugural year. In 1985, I began a 10-year stint on the board and assumed the role of medical director.

What are your responsibilities as marathon medical director?

As medical director, I organize and coordinate medical operations for the marathon and associated races on race weekend. This role has evolved over the years from overseeing a small working group to a medical operations committee of nearly 20 health professionals who are responsible for different aspects of race weekend and other races throughout the year. This evolution has paralleled the change from Twin Cities Marathon to Twin Cities In Motion (TCM), which governs all races under the TCM umbrella.

The major effort on race weekend is focused on the marathon and 10-mile races. There is a small start area team, a large on-course team, and a finish line team. We utilize physicians, RNs, PTs, ATCs, EMTs, paramedics, and students in those respective fields.

Your involvement with TCM has produced heat- and injury-related research and led to consultations with internationally recognized marathons. What have you learned?

We can do a lot to help runners who have difficulty at the finish line and on the course.

Most have self-limited problems, but we have saved several people who might not have survived if not for the rapid response of our medical team.

Our group has published several papers on marathon care and research that have had worldwide impact on marathon medical care. The top three takeaways include:
1) Time is tissue, so rapid evaluation and care makes a difference in cardiac arrest, heat stroke, and exertional hyponatremia.
2) You can drink too much fluid and it can kill you, so it is critical to know your fluid requirements or just drink when you are thirsty.
3) There is an upper limit to heat safety that affects the individual runner and the community; race organizers need to understand those limits.

On race weekend, the medical staff is comprised of 300+ volunteers. How can people get involved?

Visit the TCM website, www.tcmevents.org, or e-mail rober037@umn.edu.

You currently blog answers to runners’ questions with Runners World. What’s the URL?

sportsdoc.runnersworld.com