27-Year-Old Man Dies In Tulsa Half Marathon

The runner was in good shape and most likely died due to a structural heart abnormality.

A man in his twenties collapsed and died of cardiac arrest near the 10-mile mark at the Route 66 Half Marathon in Tulsa, Oklahoma last Sunday. Marcus Takach, a native of Tulsa who wore a tattoo with a picture of his beloved city, wasn’t new to running or to working out.

“He was just a fitness nut and very driven,” said his father, Nicholas Takach.

Dennis Blankenship, the emergency room director at the Oklahoma State University Medical Center, the hospital where Takach was taken, suspects the runner most likely had a structural heart abnormality.

Besides running, Takach was an Eagle Scout and a third-degree black belt. He is the second runner to have died in the five-year-history of the Route 66 Half Marathon. The first fatality was two years ago when a 21-year-old died of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

For More: Tulsa World