My response to Warren's facetious question about how to lose weight and qualify for the Boston marathon was intended to be humorous. But when Jay inquired about my reference to "negative splits", things opened up. Because I never am able to end my posts to Dead Runners list without at least a hint of sarcasm, a full blown discussion on the insaneness of producing negative splits in a sprint quickly followed my next response. Since that debate gets off the course of recovery from heart surgery, it will be treated as a sidebar here:

Negative Splits And Sprinting

But, I can't help thinking that this lively exchange led me to my fixation for running so soon. I was like a possessed youth. I could not stand to loiter on the side of caution for another day. I had to run!

Date:     Wed, 23 Apr 1997 Subject:   Can you say Tachycardia? Greetin's Deads, I have my very first ObRN since OHS ... since January, actually! It's been 28 days since they sawed my sternum in half. I decided it was okay to go drivin' today so I made the big trip out West again, At least this time I got a whole lot of errands done on the return trip to make whatever pain I may experience tonight worth the effort. Oh yah and then lets add a little one mile jog on top of that for good measure! It felt very strange indeed. Hell, I didn't really think it was going to be easy. It doesn't matter how much better equipped my heart might be after the correction - I am definitely still on the mend. Talk about winded! Within the first 300 meters (the length of Vikki's driveway) I was sucking in air fast and hard. That quick introduction made me realize that I am still hesitant to take a deep breath. Fine, I get out on the road and try to get a rhythm going. My heart rate was high, the breathing was loud, but just as I suspected, without a shirt the skin around my incision was no problem at all! Good, that's 1 out of 4 possible obstacles off the list. Another worry beyond a rapid HR and heavy breathing was, without question, how would my kneecap hold up? Well, it wasn't too awful. Maybe I was distracted by the intense motion my diaphram as I kept trying to pull in enough air, but I only felt a couple twinges from my knee ... it carried me along anyway. Finally, at about the half mile when I turned around, I forced myself to expand my lungs and take in some significant air. I took one deep breath very carefully ... no pain. I took a second ... again, I was fine. "Hey, maybe this could work for me!", I yelled to myself. Over the next minute I gasped about twenty times and eventually it seemed like I was catching up. By the time I reached the driveway again, my heart was still pounding, but my breathing was more settled. When I finally stopped I was not at all concerned about the pace. All I could think about was my heart rate. because at that point I felt like I had just finished a five mile run and it seemed as hard as an attempted PR! I walked over to my truck and pulled out my stopwatch to get my pulse. Man, it was difficult to count that fast! Finally the 30 second alarm rang, I took my count and multiplied by two ... 152 bpm? Okay, Dead guys and Gals, what do I make of this? I never actually took my pulse after a 1 mile run before. How out of shape am I? My resting HR for now is about 76 bpm. Any suggestions on how to proceed from here? Thanks in advance! Peter dellaFemina Readsboro VT

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Last Updated May 13th 1998