OCEANSIDE: Heart attack doesn't deter marathon runner

San Marcos man went from race to hospital

By RENEE HAINES - For the North County Times | Monday, May 26, 2008 6:10 PM PDT ∞

John Spangler isn't letting last year's heart attack hold him back from another run at San Diego's annual Rock 'n' Roll Marathon on June 1.

The 48-year-old San Marcos man suffered a heart attack shortly after finishing last year's 26.2-mile foot race. He just didn't immediately know it.

"The first symptom I had was cramping in my biceps and a burning sensation in my chest that spread from shoulder to shoulder," Spangler said. "It was almost like heartburn, but much more intense."

The water laboratory coordinator of the Vista Irrigation District had been a runner for 30 years, was physically fit and had no history of heart disease or other risk factors.

"I couldn't have imagined in my wildest dreams it would be a heart issue," Spangler said. "All I wanted to do was go home, take a shower and eat a burrito."

Instead, his wife insisted they stop by the emergency room at Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas, where heart surgery saved his life.

These days he takes anti-clotting medications after having a wire-mesh tube called a stent inserted to prop open a weakened artery.

And he's getting ready for his second San Diego marathon.

"I was running a month after I had the surgery," he said with a grin, after another checkup this week. "I've had all the stress tests. All systems are go."

Marathon runners suffering heart attacks used to be the rare sports story before more aging baby boomers running more marathons became the norm.

And this is marathon season in a country that boasts at least 340 marathons versus 181 seven years ago, according to marathonguide.com and other reports. The average age of runners reported in 2007 was 40 among men and 39 among women.

Three people suffered heart attacks in April during the Boston Marathon, race officials reported. A 55-year-old man suffered a heart attack this month during an Ohio marathon.

Closer to home, a 58-year-old San Jose man suffered a heart attack in March while training for the Big Sur International Marathon.

"Age does come into play with coronary disease," said Dr. Roy Avalos, the cardiologist at Scripps Memorial who performed Spangler's heart surgery.

"It's absolutely safe as long as you start gradually," Avalos said of distance running. "I would do it under the supervision of a physician. If you're running and in good shape, it doesn't mean you don't have coronary heart disease."

Among all the signs of a heart attack, including muscle cramping, abnormal chest pressure and outwardly spreading pain that Spangler experienced, Avalos said that "shortness of breath" is the symptom overlooked most by those who become his patients.

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