Runner who collapsed at race died of heart failure

VIRGINIA BEACH

Erik Wellumson, the 23-year-old who collapsed on the Boardwalk while running the Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon in September, died of an acute cardiac collapse, the medical examiner's office reported Friday.

The heart failure may have been caused by cardio-myopathy, the medical examiner's office said. According to the American Heart Association, that's a disease that causes the heart muscle to become inflamed and not work as well as it should.

Strenuous exercise and chronic tracheitis due to a respiratory infection also contributed to his death, according to the medical examiner's office. Tracheitis is a bacterial infection of the windpipe.

Wellumson collapsed by 8th Street near the end of the half marathon shortly before 9 a.m. that Sunday, police said. Paramedics tried to revive him before taking him to the hospital, where he died.

His death came as a surprise to his family and friends. He was in good shape and had trained for the 13.1-mile run over the summer, said his grandfather, Doug Wellumson, in a phone interview Friday from his Arkdale, Wis., home.

Erik Wellumson was a standout quarterback at Chesapeake's Hickory High School, where he graduated in 2004, said his coach, Jeff Beard. He also played a season for Christopher Newport University, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in business in May 2008, Doug Wellumson said. He was a financial analyst at a consulting firm at the time of his death.

Erik Wellumson's death has taken a toll on his family, especially his mother, Doug Wellumson said. In 2005, his father died in a plane crash in Afghanistan.

"It was just a wonderful nuclear family," he said. "And now her family's down from five to three."

He also left behind a younger brother and sister.

Kathy Adams, (757) 222-5155, kathy.adams@pilotonline.com