Heart condition: Heart attack

Fitness before treatment(s):  Eight years ago, my life style was one that was heading down the path of destruction. At forty-two years of age, I was a person that smoked, drank, and was overweight, stressed and never believed in exercise.

Treatments:  Quadruple bypass.

Cardiac rehabilitation: After my operation, scarred and sore, I was about to take up the biggest change of my life. One afternoon, standing in a gym in the City I watched a man workout on a running machine. All of a sudden I realized that the man was my heart surgeon. After a chat he asked me to have a run on the treadmill. So with great trepidation I decided to give it a go. I had been doing a lot of walking as exercise after my heart attack and this was a further stepping stone.

Present training regime: Eight years down the track with the right diet, lots of training and lots of love and support from my wife and two sons, I am now a marathon runner. I train a minimum of six kilometers and a maximum of thirty kilometers a day

Achievements as a Cardiac Athlete: I have won two gold championship medals, two silver championship medals and three bronze championship medals for my Club. Third and second in two separate Australia Day runs at Redland Bay, second in an open event ten kilometer run for Breast Cancer in the City, and third in an open event at Mt. Mee. Mt Mee is rated one of the hardest in the country.

I have run the one hundred-kilometer running leg of the Sri Chinmoy Peace Triathlon in Canberra in eleven hours. The Sydney Olympic Course Marathon in three hours sixteen minutes and the Gold Coast Marathon in three hours fourteen minutes, all in the space of seven months.

My last run was the Gold Coast Half Marathon in a time of one hour, twenty-seven minutes. In a field of 3,287 runners I came 204 overall and 7th in my age group.

My best times in running are:
Marathon - three hours, fourteen minutes Gold Coast
Half-marathon - one hour, twenty seven minutes Noosa
Ten kilometers - thirty-eight minutes QMRRC
Five kilometers - seventeen minutes QMRRC

Future goal(s):  I run for two reasons, firstly so that I may lead a long and healthy life and secondly in the hope that I may encourage someone else to do the same thing and save a life.