Blake Joseph Groulx, 27, of Minneapolis, died after falling while competing in the Lake City Half Marathon around Lakes Harriet and Bada Maka Seka, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office.
Groulx fell along West Bde Maka Ska Parkway just south of W. Lake Street, according to Park Board police records. The two race participants who came to his aid said they saw Groulx “seem to stumble while they were running, and then he fell and hit his head on the curb,” the park police report said.
The medical examiner's office has not yet disclosed the cause of death.
According to the park police:
The two race participants alerted a park police officer stationed at a road closure that a runner had collapsed. The policeman left his post and saw three race participants working on the patient. The three were a physician's assistant, an emergency room nurse and a doctor.
“Initially the patient had a pulse and was breathing,” the report continued. “Then he stopped breathing and CPR was performed by the assistants.”
Several other runners identified themselves as emergency room nurses and also stopped to assist.
An ambulance took Groulx to Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, where he was pronounced dead.
The 13.1-mile race, which began more than 60 years ago, is sponsored by the nonprofit organization Run Minnesota. Sarah Ehlers McInerney, Minnesota's executive director, acknowledged that Grolex was hospitalized, but she declined to say anything else.
