{"id":17743,"date":"2013-11-21T14:16:43","date_gmt":"2013-11-21T19:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/?p=17743"},"modified":"2018-08-25T15:26:04","modified_gmt":"2018-08-25T20:26:04","slug":"running-team-brian-walsh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2013\/11\/21\/running-team-brian-walsh\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian’s Guest Post: Life Beyond Heart Valve Surgery, Pulling Together a Running Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I joined Heart Valve Journals<\/a> in September of 2012, I had really one thing in mind, “Could I continue running til surgery and after surgery would I be back to where I was at?”\u00a0 In June, I was told that I needed to have surgery but decided not to fully believe that since I had no symptoms that I could see and was running 20-30 miles a week, completed a half marathon just months before and was planning a full marathon in November.<\/p>\n

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\"Brian
\nBrian & His Three Sons<\/p>\n

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Well, it came to reality in October and November when my Internal Cardiac Device (ICD) Defibrillator sent a shock through my body from my heart hitting over 180 and then 190 beats per minute.\u00a0 As I reflected back on my journal entries,<\/a> I remember this time too well.\u00a0 This was the reality check I needed and the time I needed to talk it out with my wife to give me the peace to go ahead and get this surgery behind me.\u00a0 The encouragement from this website was something I really needed as people I did not know reached out through the guestbook, provided information and I read story after story about success from others.<\/p>\n

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\"Brian
\nBrian 3 days after surgery, loving being photographed in my gown<\/p>\n

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Now, here I am almost 1 year from my surgery and back at full strength in my running, preparing for my first half marathon since surgery in April and trying to give back to this great community in any way I can.\u00a0 I know there are many other passionate runners out here, some pre-surgery, some in recovery and many post surgery.\u00a0 I already have a list of a few, Scott Newson, Mitch Friedman, Jim Jones, Peter Woglom, and John O\u2019Neil.\u00a0 Now, I want to get more and give back to the heart community as a whole, so here is the plan.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve created a survey<\/a> to gather feedback on race destinations, number of shirts and just willing supporters.\u00a0 Since we are all over the world, I have to pick a place that is convenient for people to travel to.\u00a0 The survey has a list of dates and destinations and I want to pick one that is best for everyone so the one with the most interest will be picked.\u00a0 Second, I\u2019ve got a design for a race shirt that I have posted in my journal you can find see below.<\/p>\n

Finally, and most important, I\u2019ve built a relationship with my local American Heart Association and would like to raise funds for them along with this effort.\u00a0 No minimum, but my goal would be for the team to raise $10,000. Once we finalize a destination I will send out to all who sign up, post to my journal and plan to meet up at the destination the Friday\/Saturday before the race so we can share stories and just meet each other that have provided all of us encouragement, prayers, support and so much more through these times.<\/p>\n

Now I need this community to come together, I\u2019ll work out all the details, but of course happy to take on volunteers that want to work with local hotels and other logistics, I just need you to let me know your interest and races you would like to do, so please complete the survey.<\/p>\n