Wheeling Hospital is once again providing not only resources for the Ogden Newspapers 20K Classic Run and Walk but also providing the time of their employees to aid athletes as they participate and finish the race.

“We are strongly supportive of this community event. It obviously promotes the importance of physical fitness and supports our commitment to wellness,” said Dr. Donald Hofreuter, president and chief executive officer of Wheeling Hospital. “We also are pleased to be a sponsor because it increases the awareness of our community regionally, nationally, and internationally.”

The hospital has several different roles on race day.

“We have a couple different jobs at the race,” Wheeling Hospital Directer of Rehabilitation Services John DeBlasis said. “One of them deals with doing triage at the finish line.”

DeBlasis explained that there will be a group of Wheeling Hospital employees at the finish line watching the runners and walkers as they complete the race to determine whether they are in need of any medical attention.

“There will be a group of people at the finish line to make a determination of whether there is any potential for things like a heat-related problem,” DeBlasis said. “Then we will escort them over to the first aid area to evaluate them and treat them - and to transport them if necessary.”

DeBlasis said the number of people who need medical attention for things like heat exhaustion is dependent on the conditions at race time.

“We’ve had everything from the hot and humid weather to cool, misty rains,” DeBlasis said. “The environmental conditions at the time of the race vary every year.”

In addition, he said the other thing worth noting is that the race participants are smarter and generally in good shape, meaning they are less likely to suffer some type of catastrophic problem following the race.

“Most of these are pretty dedicated runners who have devoted a lot of time to running and training for large races,” DeBlasis said, adding that this type of continuous training minimizes the risk of their needing medical attention.

However, less dangerous conditions are common among the racers from things like muscle strains to blisters and heat-related illnesses of several different varieties, and he also said it is important to have this medical staff available in case of a larger, more life-threatening problem.

In addition, members of the Wheeling Hospital Physical Therapy Department and some other area massage therapists are available for the athletes at the massage tent following the race.

“After any event, fluids have a tendency to pool in the lower extremity, which is a large source of discomfort,” DeBlasis said. “We try to remove that from the system manually (with massage) to remedy that.”

De Blasis pointed out that Dr. Lee Jones, who was in charge of the medical aspect of the race for many of the recent years, died recently.

“We certainly would be remiss if we didn’t mention that it is through his efforts that we’re where we are today with this,” DeBlasis said.