Monday, September 25, 2006 - 05:35 PM

It's a scene that's become all too familiar at marathons in Toronto in recent years: A runner suddenly crumples to the pavement and is rushed by ambulance to hospital.

Martin Poyser, 41, of Toronto, yesterday became the fourth runner in the last five years to die at a marathon event when he collapsed about 700 metres from the finish line in his half-marathon race at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon.

It was the third year in a row that a runner has died at a marathon event in the city — there have been three deaths in the last four years of the Toronto Marathon, a different race which is scheduled for Oct. 15. It was the first fatality in the 17-year history of the waterfront marathon.

Poyser went down at the corner of Bay and Wellington early yesterday morning and, according to race director Alan Brookes, received CPR within one minute of his collapse. An EMS ambulance with paramedics arrived on the scene in less than three minutes. He was transported to Mt. Sinai Hospital, where doctors tried to resuscitate him for about an hour before pronouncing him dead.

It is not believed Poyser had any children. He is survived by a father in England.

Brookes believes the recent fatalities at Toronto marathons reflects more the numbers involved than any inherent dangers in the event.

"There are so many more people doing runs now," said Brookes. "Our races used to be big races with 1,000 runs. Now, they've got 10,000 runners. So what are the odds? There are a lot of new people to the sport, swelling the ranks.

"I think it's baseball. Life is a game of percentages. And if all of a sudden we had 1,000 people in a race and then we have 10,000 or 40,000 like New York or Chicago or London, then what are the chances of someone having a serious medical condition?"

Dr. Bruce Minnes, medical director of yesterday's event and a marathon runner himself, said that deaths in marathons are "actually quite uncommon."

"I don't think they are any more dangerous than any other event and, in some respects in a well-organized event like this, we're able to put together a system of support, safety response that if something does happen we're able to meet it quite quickly," said Minnes, who works in the emergency ward at The Hospital For Sick Children.

"If you look at the large number of middle-aged and older people crossing the finish line, there's a heckuva lot more people who are in really good shape than people who have any kind of significant problem."

Minnes tried to put the situation into perspective.

"In a larger context, a heckuva lot more people are going to get sick or die related to the air quality in the GTA or road traffic collisions in the city," he said.

But Peter Donato of Toronto, a veteran race promoter who runs marathon clinics, said there are a lot of runners who overstep what should be their limits and those are the ones who usually get into trouble.

"Some just try to do too much too soon," he said. "If you look at where a lot of trouble happens, it's a-types who work 50 hours, don't eat too well and are egged on by their ego.

"I do a lot of talks and get a lot of questions and I just end up shaking my head thinking, `You don't know what you're doing.' They don't take the proper approach. I don't think that's the sport's fault."

Minnes said it's important for recreational runners to take advantage of clinics to prepare for a race.

"But at the end of the day each individual runner has to assess their own fitness level and ability to participate," he said. "This is not like the Olympics where people are vetted in a whole variety of ways. There's no screening process beyond, `Have you discussed this with your physician and are you aware of the risks?'"






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