Risk for Award, Or Just Risk—Finding a Way to Push Our Bodies Safely

As someone who has participated in races and events for most of my life, as well as organizing and volunteering for many, several thoughts keep rolling through my mind. By nature, I am an over planner and over preparer. Being a wilderness guide for several years taught me that the more you prepare for “whatever may come,” the more you can handle the inevitable wrench thrown in. Call me unadventurous or boring, but I’d rather save my bandwidth for dealing with equipment failure, medical emergencies, or wild critters vs. physical suffering or missing gear.

Sometimes, however, a participant can be quite prepared and still experience a tragic event. This occurred this year at Wausau 24 mountain bike race. On July 26th, Scott Metz lined up for his 12th Wausau 24. Sadly, during the race, he suffered a cardiac event, which took his life. I was finishing a lap when I heard that several friends were on scene helping him until medics arrived. What came after he died was something I didn’t expect. His family and friends knew Metz would hate it if his lap didn’t count, so they finished it for him to honor and celebrate him.

Mark Evans, who has volunteered and ridden at Wausau 24 for years, and is a physician’s assistant in emergency care, was one of the first on scene to help Metz. Because he has a long history of competing in endurance events and is a physician assistant, I asked him for his viewpoints on what happened.

“The human body is a fragile thing, but that does not mean it is not meant to be abused; we just cannot abuse it recklessly! I’m writing this as I sit in Marquette, Michigan. This place to me is a haven for fun, but it can also be a dangerous place with my chosen hobby. I really enjoy riding my bike, specifically on trails that are less traveled, remote, and, well, dangerously fast! Why? It produces hormones in our bodies that make us react better, feel more alert, and, quite honestly, doing hard things makes us better humans in my opinion. We still, however, need to be restrained at times and understand the limitations of the human body. We can control some aspects, but the human body remains a mystery. There is a time when your ‘battery’ runs out, unfortunately. We have this one body, and while we want to challenge, use, and abuse it, we need to do so while bring aware of possible hidden risks.

Metz’s tragedy, resulting in a death at an event, is not a common occurrence. But maybe it should make us consider what we would do in a similar situation. High heat and humidity made this year’s W24 race harder than usual. The medical tent always seemed to be busy with wounds being dressed and heat exhaustion being treated. My team purposely chose to take a couple of hours off from night laps because the rocks were so slick and we were all a more tired than we thought from the humidity. As a result, we certainly lost a place in the team standings. This was much harder decision for me, being a part of a team, since I didn’t want to let anyone down. By making this difficult decision, we hoped to stay out of the medical tent ourselves and prevent a crash with another rider. Our decision was neither right nor wrong. It was just our choice, and one we didn’t regret despite us all saying we could have ridden during those hours. Looking back, I was relieved that no one on my team questioned or bullied one another to change their minds once the decision was made.

As I sift through all the events I’ve done, and what people are embarking on now with the “bigger, harder, faster” mentality, and a world of untrained people paying their way to reach the Everest summit, there are two sayings I remember most as an EMT, guide, and personal trainer. “First do no harm” and “Don’t create another victim.’ These sayings can be applied to so many things and can be used by both event organizers and participants. As an organizer, it can mean choosing to hold or cancel an event in inclement weather, making sure participants are well informed of risks, having a well-set protocol if an emergency occurs and having enough staff or volunteers on hand to deal with emergencies. For participants, it can mean being physically prepared through training, having the correct gear for the event, reading any emails or notes sent by organizers, attending and actively listening to any mandatory meetings by the organizers, and having a game plan for “just in case” situations. These game plans can be as simple as how to contact someone in an emergency if there’s no cell coverage, to the much more serious of having health care directives on file.

This is not written to detour people from pushing themselves or organizers from creating challenging events. It’s more about creating a space to ask important questions and reflect on our role in the outdoor community, as well as how we can keep ourselves and those around us safe.