Oct 22, 2007 Scott Eathorne - Marathon Medical Director By Doug Kurtis

Dr. Scott Eathorne is the marathon medical director. He has been affiliated with the Free Press Flagstar Marathon for over fifteen years. He came to the marathon as a family medicine resident for Providence Hospital’s emergency unit that serves the marathon through its medical volunteers.



Residents and their nurse colleagues get together and create a mash tent at the finish line to provide medical services to the runners. When the race began to grow they needed more staff and called upon interested physicians.

As a sports medicine doctor and someone moonlighting in the emergency room Dr. Eathorne began to work with the race. He continued to work with the marathon while he was studying sports medicine at Michigan State.

He has seen medical coverage for the marathon evolve from a group of ER, primary care physicians, nurses, podiatrists and anyone they could get to spend a Sunday helping, to a significant medical unit. The unit also coordinates with EMS to ensure on course and finish line coverage.

According to Dr. Eathorne, “I have seen the type of injuries remain the same but our medical unit approaches their care with a much greater knowledge of how to treat them through sports medicine. As an example, the medical staff now recognizes and treats exercise induced hyponatremia, which is runners over hydrating and suffering from low sodium levels.”

“From study we now have a better profile of which runners might be more at risk to certain problems and can educate them. Especially first time runners, who are usually out on the course for a longer period of time and take on too much water relative to their expended energy.”

“Now instead of performing medical procedures from a reactive standpoint we can educate runners during their training and intervene before things get too serious. Subsequently we have gotten more sophisticated in the medical tent using equipment like sodium analyzers. “

Providence works with other races as well as high school and collegiate athletes but the marathon represents a unique endurance population with its own set of risks.

Eathorne attends an annual meeting of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine which usually covers issues related to endurance sports. For him it’s an opportunity to compare notes and learn from the experiences of other doctors who work on endurance events.

Some races share their medical data with other races. At the Free Press Marathon, Providence collects data on injuries but as yet has not published it. Dr. Eathorne noted that he is more likely to review information from races that have similar weather climate and altitude conditions.

In spite of the increase in participation at the Free Press Marathon, the ideal weather conditions have helped maintain a relatively flat rate of injuries.

From Dr. Eathorne’s finish line observations, he recognizes that one appeal of marathon is that almost anyone can do it. “With the proper amount of training, participants of every shape and size can make it to the finish line.”

Usually thirty to forty medical volunteers work the finish line unit. The number of runners that have registered for medical attention has been around a hundred. “This is pretty low compared to other marathon of our size. In Detroit we are also fortunate to have a large contingent of massage therapists to help the runners recover.”

Dr. Eathorne anticipates that the rate of recovery may take longer this year with the finish returning outside versus the controlled environment inside Ford Field. “This means a greater area will be needed for runners to recover and enable them to determine if they need medical assistance or acute care, especially if the weather turns bad.”

Covering mass participation endurance events and applying principles that they pulled from emergency care has changed significantly over the years. “We’re probably just touching the tip of the physiology of performance, performance enhancement, injury prevention and hopefully we will help make races safer and training for them more enjoyable. “

“I admire people who choose to train and run marathons as a way to stay in shape. Marathon and shorter distant runners serve as role models for things like our Kid’s Miles project. They help expose and spread the word early to kids, the desire to maintain healthy habits and establish positive goals.”