Nearly three dozen participants in Sunday’s Santa Barbara Half Marathon ended up in local emergency rooms with similar “unusual symptoms” of undetermined cause, prompting Santa Barbara police to open an investigation into what they called “suspicious circumstances.”
The Santa Barbara Police Department launched an investigation after multiple runners participating in the Santa Barbara Half Marathon on Sunday, November 8, developed unexplained symptoms that sent them to local emergency rooms.
The incident initially involved 19 patients. However, the number climbed to 27 by Monday, according to updated reporting from the Associated Press.
According to CBS Los Angeles, authorities were alerted after Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital reported an unusual influx of patients who had participated in the race.
Some runners were transported by ambulance, while others made their own way to emergency departments at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital and Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital.
What makes this incident particularly concerning is that several patients reportedly experienced similar symptoms that medical professionals have not publicly explained.
Cottage Health officials initially reported 19 emergency department visits connected to the event, describing the number as higher than expected.
Police subsequently opened an investigation into what local reporting characterized as “suspicious circumstances.”
The exact symptoms have not been publicly disclosed, and investigators have not established a cause.
Event director David Monico of Run Local attributed the incidents to heat and exhaustion on an unseasonably warm November day, when temperatures reached the low-to-mid 80s.
He said the medical team treated numerous runners for dehydration and overheating on the course and at the finish line and saw nothing outside the norm for an endurance event. Monico stated organizers have “no reason to believe that it’s anything more than just the heat and exhaustion.”
That explanation has not satisfied everyone. Social media quickly filled with unverified claims that water stations may have been spiked or that runners were otherwise drugged.
Police have not identified a cause and said no specific action is recommended for the general public at this time, while urging symptomatic participants to seek care. Officials noted that spectators and bystanders did not report similar symptoms.
One runner told KTLA she became unconscious for nearly an hour, experienced hallucinations, and could not remember portions of the race, details that go beyond typical heat exhaustion and help explain why doctors and police continue to describe the symptoms as unusual.
Jim Hᴏft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016.
You can email Jim Hᴏft here, and read more of Jim Hᴏft’s articles here.
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