Dear Ootyultra Runner,

(Self-declaration form link is given at the bottom of this page)

Please read the contents of this page carefully in its entirety. It contains important safety information and medical advice from Dr. Kumar Janardhanan, the OOTYULTRA Medical Director. All runners are expected to comply.

While it is fun to run an ultramarathon, OOTYULTRA is a tough road run across all distance categories and poses various challenges and medical risks to the participating runners. We strive for the safety of the runners and the volunteers, and we also want you to have a most memorable, safe, and beautiful ultramarathon experience.

The OOTYULTRA medical and safety crew consists of the Medical Director and Doctors supported by ambulances, bike EMS, route-marshals, first-responders, and first-aid trained volunteers. In addition, physio and medical tent facilities are available at the finish line.

Our intent is not to deter your enthusiasm but to highlight the event rules, medical warnings, and risks (published here) for your safety and the safety of fellow runners, the event crew and volunteers.

Kannan Sundararajan (Coach Kay), Race Director, Ootyultra

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Medical advisory

By Dr. Kumar Janardhanan, Medical Director, Ootyultra

COVID-19: the need more awareness & vigilance

The preamble for the need for more vigilant medical supervision this time around is that we just surpassed the third wave of Covid 19 and yet it remains to stay as an endemic and thus poses a challenge to the community at large.

Although the Covid-19 virus primarily affects the respiratory system, increasing reports imply that SARS-CoV-2 has extrapulmonary manifestations, including renal, gastrointestinal, neurological, and cardiovascular. These mechanisms include direct SARS-CoV-2 related cardiac and endothelial injury, and indirect heart damage by induced cytokine storm, hypercoagulable state, and hypoxia.

Cardiac manifestations in COVID-19 seem to occur over different time points: acutely during COVID-19 and/or after apparent COVID-19 recovery. A large portion of the population had an asymptomatic covid-19 infection as well.

Several studies found that more than half of patients still complain of cardiac symptoms many weeks post-COVID-19, with a similar proportion showing structural and functional cardiac abnormalities on diagnostic investigations such as ECG or Cardiac MRI.

Hence, investigating cardiac involvement after COVID-19 recovery has a crucial clinical role to direct the development of post-discharge surveillance programs along with public health, economic and social policies. Hence in Ootyultra we take great responsibility in this direction of post COVID wave surveillance and knowing the runners’ cardiac status prior to the race event.

What are you expected to do?

With less than a month to go for OOTYULTRA, we request you to complete the following mandatory and recommended steps in the coming days and fill out the self-medical declaration form (link available below).

• MANDATORY: Proof of vaccination: Ensure you have already taken 2 doses of vaccination before arriving at the Race venue on the 2-Apr-2022, Saturday. If you can not submit it now, you can submit it at the medical tent on Expo day.
• MANDATORY: If vaccination is not done (only single dose is done) for whatever reasons, you must bring a NEGATIVE RT-PCR prior to collecting your BIB on the expo day. The RT-PCR test must be done on or after 31-Mar-2022. You will not be allowed to enter the race venue or collect the race kit without showing a vaccination certificate or a negative RT-PCR report.
• MANDATORY: If you were affected by COVID-19 in the past, you must obtain a medical certificate of fitness from a qualified doctor. This is a mandatory requirement.
• STRONGLY RECOMMENDED: that all registered runners take a basic ECG and consult with a doctor. You can upload the copy of the ECG while submitting the medical declaration form or simply bring a printed copy to the OOTYULTRA Expo venue and hand it over to our medical team.
• MANDATORY: Fill out the form – link below

P.s you will have an option to update the medical declaration form after submission if you wish to add any information later.

Please write to info@ootyultra.com if you have any questions.

Dr.J S KUMAR MD GDipDC(Aus)

Medical Advisor, Ootyultra