Aaron Kuen was looking forward to this year’s California International Marathon more than any race he’d ever run.
Prior to lining up at the starting line of the December 4 race, the 37-year-old finance administrator and Iraq War Army veteran from Elk Grove, California, was in the best shape of his life and hoping to qualify for the both sub-elite division of the 2023 New York City Marathon and the 2024 Boston Marathon for the first time.
Based on his splits transmitted by his Garmin GPS watch, he was having the run of his life. For most of the net downhill point-to-point course from Folsom to Sacramento, Aaron was running 6:25 per-mile pace or faster. He was on target for a 2:48 marathon, which would have been a 17-minute PR from the previous year’s CIM race.
But because of a freak medical incident brought on by rhabdomyolysis, Aaron never made it to the finish line. He suffered a cardiac arrest and collapsed near the 26-mile mark, lost consciousness and stopped breathing. Rhabdomyolysis is a rare condition in which skeletal muscle tissue breaks down from intense physical exertion and releases proteins and electrolytes (such as potassium) into the bloodstream at a toxic level.
Although he was revived by emergency medical…
