Coming Back to Running After a Heart Scare

In October 2020, I was out on a run, literally doing the thing that was supposed to be keeping me healthy, when I had a major cardiac event. It put me in the hospital, and it turned out I needed a quintuple bypass. I came home with a rebuilt heart and an implantable defibrillator quietly keeping watch.

For a while, I genuinely wondered if my running story was over. If you are reading this after a heart scare of your own, or a scare with any part of your health, I want you to know two things. You are not alone, and coming back is often possible. But it has to be done the right way, with your medical team leading.

One important note before I go any further: I am a running coach, not a doctor, and nothing here is medical advice. If you have had a cardiac event or any serious health issue, your first and most important step is talking to your own doctors and getting cleared. What follows is my experience and a few gentle thoughts, not a prescription.

Grieving the runner you were

One thing nobody warned me about was the mental side. When running has become part of who you are, and suddenly it feels dangerous or off limits, there is a real grief in that. You can feel fragile in your own body. You can be scared that the next run is the one that gets you.

That fear is normal, and it is worth naming instead of pushing down. For me, it helped to remember something my care team helped me see. I did not run my way into a heart problem. That one was written into my history long before I ever ran a step. What running had done was give me a stronger, more resilient body to meet it with.

Your doctors come first, every time

My comeback did not start with a run. It started with appointments, tests, and a lot of questions. Cardiac rehab, when it is offered to you, is not a formality. It is a supervised, structured way to rebuild safely, with people watching the things you cannot see. I leaned on my cardiologist for every step of what I could and could not do.

If there is one thing I would tell anyone in this spot, it is this. Let your medical team set the guardrails, and stay inside them. A good coach, later on, works with those guardrails, never around them.

Start smaller than your ego wants

When I did get cleared to start moving again, I had to swallow my pride. I came back the same way I started the very first time, with walking, then gentle run/walk intervals, at an easy effort, paying close attention to how I felt. It was humbling to go slow again after having run a half marathon. But slow and steady was the only way that was both safe and sustainable.

A few things that mattered for me, and that are worth discussing with your own doctor:

• Effort over numbers. My medication changes how my heart rate behaves, so heart rate targets do not work for me the normal way. I go by effort and the talk test instead. Your situation may be different, so ask.
• Warning signs are not to be toughed out. Chest discomfort, unusual shortness of breath, dizziness, or anything that feels wrong means stop and check in with your team. This is the one place where no pain, no gain has no business.
• Patience is the training. Coming back is a long game measured in weeks and months, not days. Rushing it is the opposite of brave.

Why I came back anyway

A lot of things had to line up exactly right for me to still be here. The timing, the people around me, the care I received. I came out the other side with a second chance that many people in that situation never get, and a motto I have lived by ever since: Not Dead Can’t Quit.

So I came back to running. Carefully, with my cardiologist in the loop, one easy mile at a time. And then, with a rebuilt heart, I crossed something the version of me in that hospital bed never pictured: my first full marathon finish line.

If you are standing at the bottom right now

I am not telling you this to say your comeback will look like mine. Every heart, and every health story, is different. I am telling you because when I was lying in that hospital bed, I would have wanted to know that coming back was even on the table.

Talk to your doctors. Go slow. Celebrate small wins. And if the day comes when you are cleared and ready, and you want someone in your corner who has genuinely been through a version of this, I would be honored to help. However far you go from here, keep going.

Not Dead Can’t Quit.