Essentia Health medical staff stock up Grandma's medical tent

Next Saturday’s Grandma’s Marathon may be one of the biggest days of the year for the thousands of runners, but it’s also one of the busiest days of the year for Essentia Health medical staff. That’s why they’ll be stocking up supplies and laying out cots next Friday evening in preparation for the big race.

“We see a lot of patients with muscle cramping, blisters, basically your exercise-related injuries,” says Dr. Ben Nelson, Essentia Health sports medicine doctor and the medical director of Grandma’s Marathon. “A lot of what we see depends on the weather conditions for the runners. We’ve seen heat exhaustion, heat stroke and hypothermia.

Essentia Health can’t control the weather, but does what it can to help runners throughout the race course. Besides the large medical tent in Canal Park, there are defibrillators posted at every mile marker, medical tents along the course, 14 local ambulances, and water stations staffed with hundreds of volunteers.

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