I haven't had any success running since the cardiac catheterization surgery back in July 2019 following our trip to Brazil and Argentina for the Rio Marathon. About 5-6 days after arriving in Rio, I started to feel some tightness in the chest. I tried to just brush it off as being paranoid and still ran 17 miles of the Rio Marathon. I had stopped training about 5-6 weeks prior to the marathon, so I wasn't in enough shape to run a marathon.
When I got back home, I was still feeling this chest tightness. So I went to the emergency room where they performed an EKG. Everything looked good on the EKG, however, they also did some blood work and it showed elevated levels of troponin levels, which is a sign of a heart attack. So they put me in an ambulance and checked me into the hospital. The next day I had the surgery, which showed there was no blockage occurring.
The cardiologist determined I had myocarditis, which affects the heart. I was eager to get back running and most likely didn't wait long enough after the surgery before I started running. I ran 3 miles 9 days after the surgery. Soon after this, it would start to hurt just trying to walk 10 minutes. This led the cardiologist to perform additional exploratory surgery including MRI of the heart and lower legs. After another month, I could finally start walking 2-3 miles at a pace of 20-22 minutes per mile.
For the next couple months I would try to run, but the right leg would always hurt after a few minutes of running.
Over the next few years I would periodically try to run, but there were only a few times where I would run a full mile non-stop, and it was always hurting before the end of the mile.
In March of 2023, I decided it was time to get back into better physical shape. After traveling to a wedding in Uruguay, I started a diet and exercise program where I was averaging over 8 miles a day. After 8 weeks, I dropped from 200 pounds to 176 and was back at the running weight I had when I went to Rio for the marathon.
I decided it was time to try running again. Over the past few years, I would always try to run as long as possible until it hurt. Now I decided to take a new approach. So I started by running intervals of .2 miles, then waiting 45 seconds or so, and continue with another interval. On March 18, 2023, I was able to complete 3 miles of intervals at a pace of 10:38 with no pain. 4 days later, I ran the intervals again, this time 3.25 miles. My pace was faster at 10:15 and without pain again. The following day I decided to alternate running and walking intervals rather than stopping and was able to complete 10K at a pace of 13:04 without stopping. Again I was able to do this without any pain.
So now it is time to restart training with a goal of running the Nashville Marathon on October 23, 2023. With a run/walk strategy, I am hoping to complete it in under 5 1/2 hours.
Time to get running again!
