Preparing for the Surge[1]
Summary
This article addresses medical preparedness for mass participation events such as marathons, arguing that race directors and their medical staff need to account for the unexpected. It states that extremes in weather, as well as the potential for outside threats, need to be given consideration before race day in order to prepare adequately. Its stated position is that recruiting local expertise from various agencies in the community, both during the planning stages and on race day, will minimise if not eliminate the added stressors created by such extremes. The article says it will provide concrete examples of how the Chicago Marathon has used its own experiences with such extremes, and that readers will be given useful tools to implement at their own marathons or other mass participation events so they are better equipped for an unexpected surge. The abstract is descriptive and reports no study population, design or quantitative results.
So what
The operational point is that surge capacity at an endurance event is built from pre-race agreements with outside agencies rather than from the race's own medical roster, which supports bringing municipal EMS, public safety and receiving hospitals into planning meetings early. Because the article offers experience and examples rather than measured outcomes, it is best used to justify a planning process, not to size a specific resource.
Read the paper
- Publisher (DOI) ↗may be paywalled