Interesting. A lot of the finish line catching/triage is at the athlete or catcher's discretion, only the most obvious or people who request medical end up in medical. For the most part, we try to give them food, liquids, and either release them if they are coherent OR hand them off to a friend/family member with some instructions to keep an eye on them. Sometimes, 5 minutes after they were totally lucid, they lose it again, but we've gone on to the next racer. Obviously that's when they end up heading to massage.

Maybe some kind of questions that finish line catchers could ask athletes to help get them to medical would help - a few simple questions like "when did you last eat" "when did you last pee" "when did you last drink" "do you feel sick to your stomach". At least someone was there to catch them later, it's nice to see volunteers filling a hole.

I don't think many athletes know when they should be in medical or not, unless it's really obvious (I fell, I can't keep food down, I am going to pass out in 3, 2, 1). It might even be handy to give the athletes something before they race about what to expect at the finish line.