Is Marathoning Too Much of a Good Thing for Your Heart?

马拉松真能使心脏受益匪浅吗？
HE had not expected to spend his 60th birthday in a hospital cardiac unit. R. J. Turner, a commercial real estate broker from Frederick County, Va., had planned a robust celebration. “I was going to finish my 10th marathon,” Mr. Turner said, “which isn’t bad for a guy my age.”

 特纳没有料到会在医院的心脏护疗部度过自己的60岁大庆。来自弗吉尼亚州弗雷德里县的特纳是一名房地产经纪人，他已经计划准备了一个盛大的庆祝仪式。他说，“我还准备完成第十次马拉松赛跑，在我这个年纪来说，马拉松对身体应该没什么大碍。”

But near the start of the Marine Corps Marathon on Oct. 29, Mr. Turner raised an arm to wave at bystanders, and “everything went black.” Collapsing violently, he gashed his head, chipped a tooth and bit a deep hole in his bottom lip.

然而，10月29日海军陆战队马拉松比赛临近开幕时，特纳先生扬起手向观众示意时，紧接着，按照他的话说，“眼前一片漆黑。”他随即猛地摔了个狗吃屎，头碰了个口子，牙齿也磕掉了，嘴唇下面也划出了一道深深的洞口。

Mr. Turner, who had passed a stress test a year before, had just had a heart attack.

特纳一年前还通过了受压测试，但最近却得了心脏病。

This has been an unusual season for the cardiac health of marathoners. After years in which almost no deaths were attributed to heart attacks at this country’s major marathons, at least six runners have died in 2006.

今年对于马拉松运动员而言，是不同寻常的一年。数年里，该国的马拉松主要赛事中，几乎没有运动员死于心脏病。而2006年有至少有六名马拉松运动员死于心脏病。

Two police officers, one 53, the other 60, died of heart attacks at the Los Angeles Marathon in March. The hearts of three runners in their early 40s gave out during marathons in Chicago in October, San Francisco in July and the Twin Cities in October. And at the same marathon where Mr. Turner was felled, another man, 56, crumpled near the 17th mile, never to recover.

三月，洛杉矶马拉松比赛中，53岁和60岁的两名警官死于心脏病。十月芝加哥和双城的马拉松比赛，以及7月旧金山的马拉松比赛中，三名年龄四十出头的运动员最终也死于心力衰竭。在特纳参加的同一场马拉松比赛中，另外一名年愈56岁的选手在近17英里处痛苦倒地，再也没站起来。