Comrades marathon

I had my Medtronic fitted a year ago, I'm 57 years old. In the first few months of this year I ran a 21k, 32k and a marathon. I've run the Comrades (90k) marathon 3 times prior to my pacemaker. I often wonder whether I could ever run it again. Has anyone run this great race after having a pacemaker fitted? Or any other advice?

9 Comments

Don.........

by Tattoo Man - 2012-10-11 04:10:19

......your Number... ??

For those who do not know ..'Comrades' you have a'Bib Nunber' for life

Don..if you want.

Its ok if you dont

TM

Have you read this?

by ponch - 2012-10-12 06:10:03

It's an essay on endurance athletes and heart arrhythmia in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, June 2012 issue. Any of your heart issues correspond to items they list

Comrades Marathon

by Don Semple - 2012-10-12 06:10:39

it only becomes a permamnent number after 10 successful finishes.

How about IronMan

by Giora - 2012-10-17 03:10:13

I am in similar age (58) and going to have the PM implant soon. The MD said that my problems relate to lot of sport, is this your case also ?
I am planning to go back activity soon, start with some hiking at 500M altitude in Peru and than train again for Marthon and others (want to do another Ironman). Any idea how much time after the surgery you can start train as usual ?

Thank you

by Rebel - 2012-10-18 10:10:10

Don --

You are my new hero.

I've been afraid to start running again, so I've been walking. Yuk! And the physicians assistant who checked my PM was not interested in running or long distance biking -- at all.

And I, too, have a bunch of half marathons, a full marathon, a couple of 8-hour runs, three quadrathlons, and a number of biking centuries in my past, a past I thought was all but gone after getting my pacemaker.

I plan to walk AND run tomorrow. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Thom

Comrade's - do it again?

by JoeCardFan - 2012-10-23 05:10:34

I ran the Comrade's in 2007. My running pal and cardiologist said I would die, but didn't.
Two otherwise healthy guys did die after they finished that year, and they bested me. So you might die healthy or not.

I didn't get a pacemaker until this year but my AV blew up early in 2006. The heartbeat slowly deteriorated until it was 28 in March, then stuck in the PM.

At first it only turned on at 60 in the upper chamber, everything else was on its own. But then I was running about an 11 minute mile at 84 BPM.
Probably anaerobic. Not fun.

Two weeks ago I got them to let it rise as I run.
They let it go to 180. My lungs, heart, arms, and
head kill me at 180-190. So I just called
To get it to quit at 160.

Anyway I am trying to run a marathon

So if you have run the Comrades 3 times
you might be able to do it.

I would do Two Oceans first though.

I have been thinking about that

Joe Staler Nashville Tn
615-429-8272

Call me if you are in town for a run




Comrades

by Don Semple - 2012-10-24 03:10:52

One has to obviously be sensible but the key is to remail positive. I've tries to use my setbacks to motivate me.
The first was 10 years ago; about 6 weeks after my second Comrades (age 47) I experienced mild chest pain on exercising. Angioplasty and 2 stents later I was devastated, inherited high cholestrol was the cause. I set a goal to get the cholestrol down and 5 months later swam my best Midmarmile (about 22 mins) and a month after that ran my best 15k.
I refused to let my PM stop me last year and like I said ran a 21k, 32k and marathon at the beginning of this year. I also sis the 21k at Two Oceans and have entered next year's event hoping to upgrade to the 56k depending on how the training goes. I've run it before on the Chapman's Peak route and its a magnificent race.

Comrades again? We'll see what happens.

PM has nothing to do with it

by JoeCardFan - 2012-10-24 12:10:54

If you are fit you can do it

Best way to tell is to work your way up to it
the same as if you don't have a PM

If you take strain you probably can't push
it as much.

Anyway, my running fell off not using a PM and is now
recovering nicely by picking up the top
end a good 75 BPM which I couldn't do myself.

PM & Ironman

by hjfarr - 2012-12-15 10:12:14

My PM was implanted in Jan 2011. On 5/19/12 I competed in Ironman Texas & qualified to race at Ironman Kona World Championship which I completed on 10/13/12. Two full 140.6 mile Ironmen in 5 months at 70 years old with a PM. Anything is possible.

You know you're wired when...

You have a 25 year mortgage on your device.

Member Quotes

I've seen many posts about people being concerned about exercise after having a device so thought I would let you know that yesterday I raced my first marathon since having my pacemaker fitted in fall 2004.