THE SILENT KILLER
I got the biggest scare of my life recently at an ultramarathon in September. (I have had other major scares but that is for another day)
I registered for the Sangre de Cristo 50 km race in the moutains right in front of my home. It was the perfect first race back after a couple of years of foot problems that prevented me from running like I used to enjoy. I knew the trails…no travel time…beautiful scenery and no pressure to perform other than to finish.
It is a very low key event and I was fine with that. There wasn’t even a real observable countdown other than 3,2,1 Go. We started off in the dark and had to immediately overcome our first obstacle… a cattle guard. There is a first for everything! The race started at an elevation of 9,300 feet and would climb 4 miles uphill to the pass at an elevation of 11,450 feet.
No problem. Last year I had trained here and could usually make it 4 miles uphill and 4 miles back down in between 3 and 3 ½ hours. Training pace. As I hiked uphill in the dark I was struggling from the get go. I just could not catch my breath. This had been a constant problem for me during the previous 6 months or longer. (More detail on that later)
I was being passed left and right by other runners. I had no finish time in mind other than to finish so I blocked my concerns. I just kept telling myself “ do not stop…do not stop,,,keep pushing”
I was only about an hour in when my body forced me to stop. I couldn’t breath. My chest was so tight I honestly thought I was going to have a heart attack. I was so dizzy I had to lean on my poles and I felt like I was going to throw up. I was in a state of confusion and felt like I was seeing things. This was crazy.
It was after about 20 minutes or so that I continued on. Jim had been watching my locater dot and was concerned when it wasn’t moving. Pretty soon runners who had made it to the top were coming toward me on the way down. Wow. This was a low point. I made it to the top of the pass and looked at my watch. It had taken me 3 hours in between stopping to catch my breath. I can usually get up and down that section in 3 hours.
I was done. I had cell service at the top of the pass and called Jim to tell him I was going to be a DNF. I made my way back down and he met me at the trailhead. I stopped at the race headquarters tent and told them I was pulling out. Then we headed home. Feeling as bad as I did I initially thought that I had the flu. I called my Doctors office and told them my symptoms and they advised me to get to Emergency right away.
I live in a very remote area. The closest Emergency room is 1 ½ hours away. I got checked in and then a series of tests were conducted.
- EKG… normal
- Lung X Rays … normal
- Blood Panel…normal
- D Dimer test (ruling out blood clots)…normal
Following the Emergency room visit I was then put on the path of taking numerous other tests to rule out potential causes of my health issues and get to the bottom what my body was going through.
- Spirometry test… normal. No asthma and no COPD.
All good news so far, right? I guess. But with each normal test result my worry grew. First was this all in my head? Am I a wuss…a hypochondriac? Am I on deaths door and could drop dead at any moment? Worst case scenario…open heart surgery? I stopped hiking outside. In this rural area if I had a heart attack no one could potentially find me for hours.
I would like to insert a bit of background here. 2025 was very challenging year for me. I had so many plans of races I wanted to run and mountains I wanted to climb. I managed to squeeze in three 14 thousand foot climbs here in Colorado. I also completed the Manitou Incline a couple of times…well known as one of the most difficult stair climbs in the world.
But it was a battle. I was constantly stopping because I could not breathe. My chest would tighten I would literally be doubled over gasping for air. I just could not understand it because I am an extremely fit person. I would stop for 10 minutes to catch my breath and climb…then stop. It was just not a lot of fun. There is a difference between pushing yourself to the limits of your athletic ability…and pushing yourself through an obvious health issue. I just refused to acknowledge it or accept it.
I signed up for my first open water swim…a 1 mile event. Same thing. I could not breathe. I swam most of the race doing breast stroke so I could catch my breath. I finished but was almost dead last. I had planned on doing more swims because I love it… but the breathing became my enemy.
So I started training in the gym. I got on the treadmill and walked and did some easy workouts on the elliptical machine. Along with that I did some easy weights. I even managed to get in a half marathon on the treadmill on Christmas Eve. But the worry just grew and knawed away at me like a hungry rat. It got to the point where I had to start taking sleeping pills just to stop my brain from going into overdrive. It just wasn’t just the health concern but the financial worry.
I am Canadian but live here in the States. We pay for insurance every month… but we found out from this episode that none of the tests I was taking would be covered by our plan. We are talking thousands of dollars out of pocket. Whoever heard of paying for health insurance only not to be covered. That is the case here in the States.
- Next test… Coronary Calcium CT scan…measures calcified plaque in your arteries.
It is a predictor of coronary artery disease and future heart attack risk. There is a scoring system of 0 to 400. MY SCORE… 1. I was in perfect health. Are you kidding me? I felt like we were going nowhere. But…we were slowly ruling out a lot of negatives.
Finally I got to work on another step that my cardiologist advised. Start taking your blood pressure on a regular basis. Every day…every other day…different times of day.
Can you believe I had put off doing this because I was just focused on the major tests? I had no idea how important taking our blood pressure was. I saw it as just some random thing you did …like weighing yourself. I didn’t have a clue about low or high blood pressue and what the data meant. I was uneducated. I had been healthy my entire life. I was a marathon runner,,, an ultrarunner,..a swimmer…a mountain climber. Invincible.
THE SILENT KILLER
And lo and behold…after 3 months of tests and Dr appointments…after one week of taking my blood pressure at home I thought I had my answer. Hypertension 2. I looked at my results and started to research. I was in absolute disbelief and still am as I write this.
You can die from hypertension. It silently damages your arteries, significantly increasing the risk of fatal events like heart attacks, heart failure, aneurysms, and kidney failure. It is called the Silent Killer due to the lack of symptoms. It leads to millions of deaths globally by straining the heart and blood vessels. It makes extreme exercise difficult and risky.
WOW…JUST WOW. I know I was very close to having a heart attack. I am thanking God right now that I am a physically active person. If I had not pushed myself this past year with extreme pursuits I might never have known that I have hypertension. But the fact that I could have died on my next race or climb is a very sobering thought.
Sedentary people just do not recognize or put any thought to the subtle symptoms. Especially older people who may put their symptoms down to getting older. After my research here are those symptoms…and I had all of them.
- Headaches…often severe and persistent
- Shortness of breath..difficulty breathing, even at rest
- Chest pain…pressure or discomfort in the chest.
- Dizziness/Lightheadedness…feeling woozy or unsteady
- Fatigue/Confusion…unusual tiredness
- Numb feet…from lack of blood flow
I went through all of 2025 with these symptoms. I would be sitting down, take a breath, and then take a couple more short breaths to get enough oxygen. I would have my hand on my chest, unconsiously trying to relieve the tightness I was experiencing on a regular basis.
I headed in to my Cardiologists office with high hopes. He would look at my blood pressure results and prescribe medication to bring everything back into line. I would then be able to get back to some serious training.
The Doctor looked at my numbers and shook his head. I have high blood pressure, but not Hypertension 2. The numbers at various times of day varied and he said that looking at the averages, I did not have hypertension 2. He said that we still needed to do more tests to get the answers we were looking for.
This was crushing. It gets so frustrating to go through each test and still no diagnosis. So the next test is a heart stress test. Maybe this will provide the feedback we are looking for.
Meantime…I am looking to create some goals to keep motivated to continue on with non-strenuous exercise. I have done some research and have come up with some great ideas that will keep me training. More to come on that in future Facebook posts and blogs. FYNDAWAY
