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20 November 2007
Holy Crap. I knew this guy and his brother when I was in college. :(
Last spring my cycling team got a rotten shock when we received an email from the team captain that one of our teammates had been struck and killed by a car while he was out on a training ride. It was such a weird and sudden thing. I didn't know the guy extremely well, but I'd ridden with him many times, and had beers with him and the crew after some events we'd jointly organised / volunteered for. It's a strange place to be, because we weren't family or close friends, but we all liked him, and there were lots of jarring little reminders, like no longer seeing/greeting him on team rides or having his name listed as promoter / contact on event flyers anymore. His widow did us all a huge kindness by inviting the entire team to ride our bikes, dressed in our team kits, in his funeral processional. It was the saddest ride I've ever done.
I'm so sorry. I still remember the shock of seeing (on TV) Marc-Vivien Foe collapse and die on a football field. Nobody realised what had happened, he just collapsed. He was lying on his face, the camera zoomed in, another player turned him over and it was obvious he was dead, his eyes were open and blank. Medics rushed onto the field, but it was too late. They'd closed his eyes by the time he was loaded onto the stretcher but his arm dangled horribly, limply as his body was carried off the field.
It just seems so wrong when a young, fit sportsman dies suddenly.
This is very often due to IHSS, a rare disease where the heart muscle overgrows itself and obstructs its own outflow. I am always very sorry to read about it.