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Since the age of 10, I had been told, take it easy, don't stress yourself, that leaky valve is dangerous, you shouldn't push your luck. I was 30 when I finally found out everyone had been too cautious. I was never permitted to do any high school sports, never had a single gym class until I got into first year of college, was classified as 4F, unfit for military duty, during the Viet Nam war years.

New research in the 70s then showed that exercise was better for the heart, even the slightly damaged ones. But here I was in a forced sedentary lifestyle with no strength, no endurance, no experience with physical stress. I decided to change that in 1978. I started to run, do pushups, situps, lift some light weights. It was all new to me.

That year also happened to be the 100th anniversary of the founding of the company I worked for, GE. Many celebrations were planned, one of them was a 10km road race in the fall for the fitness freaks. A colleague posted a distance running plan for the months leading up to it. Follow this plan, he said, and you'll be ready for the 10K on Oct 1st. I followed it with several other guys in my building. They put a mileage chart on the wall in the hall to keep the incentive and we would check off the miles we ran each day creating a yards long bar chart.

Oct. 1, 1978, I ran 10Km for the first time in my life at the GE manufacturing plant in Schenectady, NY. I never looked back. After that I ran an average of more than 1000 miles a year. I ran 10, 20, even as many as 30 races in any given year. 200 to 800 meter sprints on the track, 5ks, 10ks, 15ks, half-marathons.

500 races later I was reading on a friend's Facebook page who still works at GE, that a race was planned in September on the same roadways in the same GE plant as I ran that first time, 40 years later, almost to the day. I retired long ago, but he told me pensioners were welcome. Last week I returned at age 70 and did yet another 5k. It felt good.
 
Hi and "welcome" to you

Guest;n885217 said:
Since the age of 10, I had been told, take it easy, don't stress yourself, that leaky valve is dangerous, you
...
Oct. 1, 1978, I ran 10Km for the first time in my life at the GE manufacturing plant in Schenectady, NY. I never looked back. After that I ran an average of more than 1000 miles a year. I ran 10, 20, even as many as 30 races in any given year. 200 to 800 meter sprints on the track, 5ks, 10ks, 15ks, half-marathons.

500 races later I was reading on a friend's Facebook page who still works at GE, that a race was planned in September on the same roadways in the same GE plant as I ran that first time, 40 years later, almost to the day. I retired long ago, but he told me pensioners were welcome. Last week I returned at age 70 and did yet another 5k. It felt good.

great stuff ... I can relate to so much of that (but being in my 50's now not all of it yet of course)

I was diagnosed earlier than you and so pulled out of anything sportlike from about 6 years old. I later regarded that as being responsible for so many things in my life (both bad and good) which were formative of who I became (as compared to who my relatives became).

I learned (because I had the desire) to pace my self and to ignore advice which I felt was overly cautious. I didn't "go at it like a bull at a gate" (as we say in Australia), but did make conscious and lifelong efforts to push my boundaries all the time.

You don't say if you were ever operated on (so I suspect you weren't), I was fortunate to be operated on at 10, and so was then able to slowly turn my life around from the sheltered from physical activity kid (meaning sports, not activity around farms and orchards where my mother grew up and my uncle still lived and I visited so many times as I was growing up).

I'm glad to hear that you've managed a long and successful life, to my mind its what we can acheieve if we put our mind and our determination to it.

Best Wishes
 
Oh shoot, I forgot to log in before posting. Not a newbie, I've been here since day one. Valve replacement at age 43 in 1991
 
SumoRunner;n885225 said:
Oh shoot, I forgot to log in before posting. Not a newbie, I've been here since day one. Valve replacement at age 43 in 1991

Hah, I was going to mention you as a member to talk with who's also a runner
 
Next on my schedule was yesterday, Sep. 30, a 5K race nearby that I had done a few times before, but my plans called for more mileage than that. So I arrived at the park early and walked the course in advance. Then the race at a walk/run where I finished 2nd in the 70-74 age group. After the race and awards, etc., I went out and walked the course again for a total of 15 Km. That's the biggest day I've had in several years. Feet and legs a little sore last night, but they'll get over it.
 
Great story Jack. I think I ran my first 10K race about 1976. You're doing well to still be out there. Keep going and inspiring us.
 

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