Police Investigate Illnesses That Sent 19 Santa Barbara Half Marathon Runners to the ER

Nineteen runners from Sunday’s Santa Barbara Half Marathon ended up in local emergency rooms, and the city’s police department is treating the episode as “suspicious circumstances,” Lt. Ethan Ragsdale told Noozhawk. The hospital system that took them in still cannot say what made them sick.

Cottage Health reported a “larger than expected number of emergency visits” from race participants, “a number of them with similar symptoms of undetermined cause,” in a statement first reported by CBS LA. Its doctors have not ruled heat in or out, and Cottage told KEYT that heat stroke is among the causes it is considering. Neither the hospital nor police have described the symptoms or said what condition the runners are in.

Police had not pinned down a cause by Sunday evening, Ragsdale said. “There is no specific action recommended for the general public at this time,” he said. “However, participants who feel unwell should seek medical attention and follow guidance from healthcare professionals.”

Twelve of the runners went to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital and three to Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital, while four more got there on their own, according to Battalion Chief Cory Cloud of the Santa Barbara City Fire Department. Calls for help came from points on the course that included State and Cota streets, starting at 9:40 a.m. and running until 10:45 a.m. The 7 a.m. start was on Cabrillo Boulevard, with the finish on State Street, and officials told ABC7 that more than 7,500 people took part.

Santa Barbara reached 86 degrees on Sunday, and the people who put on the race think the heat is the likeliest explanation. Event director David Monico told Noozhawk there was “no reason to believe that it’s anything more than just the heat and exhaustion from the half marathon.” The race’s medical team saw heat exhaustion, ordinary exhaustion and dehydration, he told NBC Los Angeles. “In years past, we’ve had overcast skies or less warm temperatures this time of year, so we have not had this many transports, but there’s always a handful,” he said. Jessica Metoyer, who came to the race a year ago without running it, told ABC7: “I was actually here last year. I didn’t participate then, but I don’t think it was this hot.”

Rumors spread on Reddit and other social media through Sunday that runners had been drugged or that aid-station water had been contaminated. None of the police, the hospital or the organizers has said anything to support them. Monico linked the investigation itself to that chatter. “There was a lot that has been said on social media and was circulated, and so (the police are) doing their due diligence to see if there’s any facts and truth behind it,” he told NBC Los Angeles. “We don’t know at this point.” Asked about the speculation by the Santa Barbara News-Press, he said “that would be a very unusual doing for any race across the country,” and added: “Whether we have one transport, or 15 transports to the hospital, it feels awful.”

Measured against a field of more than 7,500, the 19 emergency visits come to about a quarter of 1 percent. Marathons see medical encounters from roughly 2 percent of their runners on average, according to a Running USA review of race medicine, and across events heat-related problems make up 20 to 30 percent of them. Most never reach a hospital, so the comparison is a rough one. Dr. William Roberts, medical director of the Twin Cities Marathon, has seen encounter rates climb past twice the norm when race day is hot, and longtime Boston Marathon medical coordinator Chris Troyanos puts the surge capacity a race should plan for at 1 to 2 percent of its field. The serious conditions doctors watch for on a hot course include exertional heat stroke and exercise-associated hyponatremia, a dangerous fall in blood sodium.

Police are asking anyone with information, including runners who developed unusual symptoms after the race, to contact Sgt. Andre Miller at 805-897-2330. Cottage Health has not said when it expects to know what made the runners sick.