Hell, Micah True has died Tom Smith

This is most discouraging -- Micah True, awesome and unbelievable ultramarathoner, who probably logged 100 miles or more every week and lived on a super-healthy diet, including lots of chia seeds, evidently dropped dead during a routine 12 mile run in New Mexico.  He was 58, not much older than I.  He was one of the heros of Born to Run, one of the few books about endurance sports actually worth reading (actually, there are quite a few, but small as a percentage of the total -- other good ones include Lance Armstrong's It's Not About the Bike and Lynne Cox's Swimming to Antarctica).  So here is a guy who runs (ran) like a fiend, eats (ate) only what he should, and pretty much devoted his life to doing good and boom, he drops dead.  Seem rather unfair or something.  I hope it turns out that he had an undiagnosed aneurysm or something and didn't just give himself a heart attack by running too much.  There is some recent evidence that extreme endurance sports can damage your heart, however.

Comments

[dearieme]

I read lately thst the evidence is that when you are advised to avoid being sedentary, the amount of exercise implied is not high mileage, it's walking for 30 minutes five times a week.

[MarkInFla]

Well, it would be discouraging if you are suffering through a healthy lifestyle, eating distasteful healthy foods, suffering through an exercise program, hoping to live longer. If you are eating what you like, not suffering through an exercise program, it is encouraging to know that all that suffering might not have helped you after all, and you might as well enjoy life and hope for the best.

Is it better to have a long suffering life, or a short fun one?

[Floridan]

The downside of fanaticism.