I completed my fourteenth year as the local race director for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona Running Series on Jan. 15. What a fun weekend, even with mother nature bringing in some cold and rainy weather to the Valley of the Sun. My other roles include being the assistant medical director for the running series nationally and working with Ironman in the same capacity since 2005.
While my job is to build a team to take care of all the athletes on race day, I also find this setting to be a sports medicine academic challenge. It’s an arena outside of the outpatient exam setting that tests your knowledge base skill set and timeliness of diagnosis and treatment.
I have developed a reputation of being a treat and compete doctor since being involved with this race over the past two decades and recruited some of the best physicians, nurses, mid-levels, and students of all healthcare disciplines to rotate shadow and work in my medical tents, both locally and nationally. I continue to stay up to date with evidence-based medicine and pass that on to the medical teams I oversee in any of my events.
I love teaching in this type of setting. What better way than being right in the middle of an endurance race where all kinds of injuries can be thrown your way and to give each athlete the care needed to get back out on the racecourse.
I will be discussing endurance medicine at the 2023 OrthoArizona Sports Medicine Conference at the Hyatt Regency Phoenix on Feb. 3 from 4-6:35pm. Check out the website for more information.