{"id":20533,"date":"2016-05-16T15:57:14","date_gmt":"2016-05-16T20:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/?p=20533"},"modified":"2018-08-23T13:45:34","modified_gmt":"2018-08-23T18:45:34","slug":"triathlon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2016\/05\/16\/triathlon\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Blog: Just 10 Months After Heart Valve Surgery, Fran Conquers The Gulf Coast Triathlon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The pictures show Fran&#8217;s transformation&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-20535\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/..\/Images\/fran4.jpg\" alt=\"fran4\" width=\"600\" height=\"440\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p>Fran&#8217;s words amplify his inspirational journey&#8230;\u00a0He wrote to me:<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Hi Adam,<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday, I\u00a0completed a 70.3 mile triathlon. It was the day before my 10-month aortic valve replacement anniversary.\u00a0Here&#8217;s a recap of the triathlon &#8211; if it can be of any encouragement. Keep up your wonderful work!<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Recap: Gulf Coast Triathlon May 7, 2016<br \/>\nLocation: Panama City, Floria<br \/>\nMission: Complete Ironman Florida (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride + 13.1 mile run)<\/p>\n<p>I started the swim very cautiously, in the back &amp; waited one minute after the horn went off for my wave to go. Then, I stayed to the far outside, swimming to the first buoy turn.\u00a0The first 100 meters I had several thoughts scrambling through my head of: turning around after getting out!<\/p>\n<p>I was uncharacteristicly experiencing a lot of intense high anxiety, fear and rapid breathing or shortness of breath.<\/p>\n<p>Having started in the back and off to the outside, I told myself to just relax, think of my stroke, moving forward, saying a few prayers to calm myself.\u00a0I stayed on the outside and away from most swimmers for the first 900 yards.<\/p>\n<p>Although I was very happy exiting the water, I was quite chafed around my neck and under my right arm. Thinking more of how my pre-race body was feeling, I forgot some of the basics&#8230; Vaseline.\u00a0Once on the bike, I happily rode out of the transition area feeling good.\u00a0Making a right-hand turn that led toward the 20-mile marker.<\/p>\n<p>I started my run and after only 1.2 miles I just had no more energy. \u00a0I stopped around mile four and actually sat. I took off my right shoe and massaged my toes.\u00a0It was a lot longer day than anticipated, but with much hope and gratitude at the finish.<\/p>\n<p>Stats from the race:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Heart rate average was 144<\/li>\n<li>Heart rate maximum was 153<\/li>\n<li>Swim time: 42 minutes<\/li>\n<li>Bike time: 2 hours 57 minutes<\/li>\n<li>Run time:\u00a03 hours 10 minutes<\/li>\n<li>Finish time: 6 hours 56 minutes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>No excuses! Just GRATITUDE!!! \ud83e\udd13\u2764\ufe0f\ud83d\udc4f \u00a0And, a whole lot more respect for the basics.<\/p>\n<p>God willing&#8230; I&#8217;ll complete the Ironman Florida (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride + 26.2 mile run) on November 5, 2016<\/p>\n<p>All the very best,<br \/>\nFran Fidler<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-patient-stories"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}