Summary of medical aid given at the 2017 Valencia-Trinidad Alfonso EDP Half-Marathon

Thousands of amateur runners competed alongside the world’s fastest athletes in the 2017 Valencia-Trinidad Alfonso EDP Half-Marathon, in which over 12,200 runners finished the race. A large medical team was laid on by the organisers and The Red Cross. There were medical posts at the Start, Finish, and at regular intervals along the route. No fewer than 16 ambulances were in attendance to meet every eventuality.

119 runners received medical care, of which 87 were men and 32 were women. Of these, only six runners had to be taken to the city’s hospitals for various reasons, The Red Cross reported.

The Head of Medical Services for the Half-Marathon, Luis Cort, visited those runners who had been taken to hospital on Sunday to find out how they were. Four of them had been discharged early in the evening and tests are being run on the other two, both of whom are likely to be discharged very shortly.

Of the runners receiving medical aid, only 5% (6) of the total (119) needed to be taken to hospital. The remaining 95% were cared for at The Red Cross’ First-Aid posts at the event.

The organisers also placed skaters with defibrillators in their rucksacks along the route to attend to any medical emergency. There were also various Fast-Response Medical Posts set up with the help of Farmacias Ribera [chain of pharmacies] to deal with runners’ blisters and other minor afflictions.