Runner who died was fit and ready for marathon, wife says

Posted: November 8, 2011 - 9:24pm | Updated: November 8, 2011 - 11:34pm By Constance Cooper

Cindy Thomas, widow of the 58-year-old runner who died in Saturday’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon, said her husband seemed to be in perfect health heading into the race.

It was Ulysses Thomas’ first marathon, but he’d trained extensively, Cindy Thomas said. He went to the gym, ran or rode his bike every day. “Tom” to his friends and family, Ulysses Thomas finished a 22-mile run while training for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon, according to his wife. He had a complete physical about three months ago, she said, and everything was fine. His body fat percentage was less than 5 percent.

“He was the absolute picture of health.”

Ulysses and Cindy Thomas traveled to Savannah from their home in Mauldin, S.C., for the race. They would’ve been married 28 years Dec. 10.

Ulysses Thomas leaves behind two adult daughters, four grandchildren and six sisters. Originally from Florida, he spent 21 years in the Air Force, retiring in 1993. He was employed as a mechanical technician for Associated Fuel Pump Systems Corporation, in Anderson, S.C., when he died.

Cindy Thomas said her husband put on his Air Force uniform last year, to honor a friend who’d been commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army. The uniform had been sitting in the closet for 17 years. It still fit.

Chatham County Deputy Coroner Sara Smith said it will be at least two months before a toxicology report from Ulysses Thomas’ autopsy reveals why he collapsed on the Truman Parkway, near Delesseps Avenue, a little before the race’s 23-mile mark.

Cindy Thomas said her husband was running with a friend, a woman who wasn’t as fast as he was. They’d started off with nine-minute miles but slowed down, Cindy Thomas said, at the friend’s request.

“He was not pushing himself at all” Cindy Thomas, 49, said, and never complained that anything was wrong. “... He was capable of running much faster.”

Cindy Thomas was waiting at the 25-mile mark to run the last 1.2 miles of the race with her husband. She expected to meet up with them about 12:30 p.m. Ulysses Thomas and his running partner, whose name his wife declined to give to protect the woman’s privacy, were sending her text messages from the race course, keeping her updated on their progress.

“She thought he’d bent over to adjust his knee brace,” Cindy Thomas said. “She got about two or three steps in front of him, turned to look back, and he just collapsed... He was basically gone. They couldn’t revive him.”

Organizers say that about 19,500 people ran the full or half Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon.

According to a 1996 study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the risk of dying suddenly in a marathon because of cardiac problems is about 1 in 50,000.

Ulysses Thomas’ death was the third marathon fatality in less than a month.

A 35-year-old North Carolina firefighter died some 500 yards from the finish line on Oct. 9 during the Chicago Marathon.

Then, on Oct. 30, a 37-year-old man collapsed near the finish line of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Los Angeles half-marathon and died a short time later in a hospital.

Ulysses Thomas’ funeral will be held Saturday at 3 p.m. at the Mauldin United Methodist Church, 100 East Butler Road, in Mauldin, S.C. Cindy Thomas is asking that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Greenville Area Interfaith Hospitality Network, P.O. Box 2083, Greenville, SC 29602, www.gaihn.org, or to Triune Mercy Center P.O. Box 3844 Greenville, S.C. 29608, www.triunemercy.org.