The Walker With Heart

A 23 year old footballer has a heart attack This is a personal tragedy, an ordeal for his family and friends. This isn't the first nor will it be the last young person to die or almost die of a heart attack, there have been other "high profile" tragedies - Terry Yorath's son, Marc-Vivien Foe. Each is a tragedy for the family and their friends. Congenital Heart Disease affects about 1 in 133 children.  Of which some will be picked up before birth, some shortly after and some as adults. The tests used at birth would probably not pick up the electrophysiological conditions that lead to many cases of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADS) - pulse oximetry picks up when someones blood oxygenation levels are less than they should be. An elite athlete is going to probably, and there are always exceptions, going to have a pretty damn good blood oxygen level. An ECG is used quite often as part of sports tests especially at key points - such as signing up for a new team...

I've had a week off... Off the paid work anyway... Being me, that week off did include one formal meeting representing CHF, couple of meetings in London;  2 shows, 2 exhibitions, 6 museums or galleries, an OU tutorial and a 20 mile run... The Nazi super weapon was at U534, a salvaged WWII U-Boat now cut into 4 pieces and on display at one terminal of the Mersey Ferry... Yes my life, and Liverpool, can be that surreal.  The weapon was the "Shazaam" torpedo (my name) basically it could be programmed to hunt down specific sounds, rather than just the noisiest... This was 1945; no microchips remember.  Now why this Uboat had 3 of the 12 (yup only 12) ever made is still a mystery... The shows - The Ladykillers, hilarious, brilliant, excellent acting and superb set... If you love the original (not that travesty that Hollywood produced) then if you can see this... Classical Spectacular at the Royal Albert Hall - it was cheesy, it was so jingoistic it was cheesetastic!...

The long slow run... the hours eaten...  the trainers worn down... hydration juice slurped... instant carbs chewed down... Today was only a half marathon, 13 miles, a nice gentle pootle up and down the calendar... I was tired from my trip to London, running around playing at being a spy, and then the cramped conditions on the train back. And the rain was beating against the window... And I'm enjoying reading the Millennium Trilogy again... And I have an objective... well I have a couple of immediate ones... First up is the Excalibur Marathon - 26.2 miles 4750 ft, 12 hours... That's a walk, not a run, not for me...   That's on 31 March... So not far away... After that its the Belfast Marathon... which will look a bit like this: <p><p>&<span style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% yellow;" class="goog-spellcheck-word"...