Last Saturday, Alberto Salazar apparently had a heart attack while coaching some of this athletes in Portland OR. This is the same Salazar who won three New York City Marathons, one Boston, one Comrades, and plenty of other major distance races. This is the same Salazar who still runs regularly enough to accompany Lance Armstrong through the first 10 miles of last November's ING New York City Marathon. This is the same Salazar who is just 48 years old.If distance runners are as healthy as we would like to believe them, Salazar shouldn't have had a heart attack. Just as Jim Fixx shouldn't have died on the run. But things don't always work out the way we would like. Runners have heart attacks. Some die before they hit the ground. That's the reality.As a group, distance runners are extremely healthy, especially when compared to the sedentary masses in western societies. But this guarantees no one anything. Repeat: There are no guarantees. Not for anyone. Bad stuff happens to good people every day: heart attacks, and cancers, and Alzheimers, and trees that fall on houses. These things happen because we are all different from everyone else, and uniquely susceptible to random events. There is a lesson we should learn from this, but it has nothing to do with diet or exercise or flossing your teeth. The lesson is that life is precious, and also fragile. Our good health today can't guarantee us good health tomorrow. If we are feeling strong and fit and vigorous today, we should appreciate every minute in our 24 hours. Tomorrow could be different.None of us know anything about Salazar's health or family history. If we did, it might predict certain risk ratios. But even these would be mere statistical guesswork. A numerator. A denominator. What can anyone conclude from these?In my family, we all have very low levels of the "good cholesterol," HDL. I share this with my brother and sister, even though I have run regularly for 40 years, followed a mostly vegetarian diet, and consumed modest amounts of red wine. These are all supposed to raise your HDL; mine is in the toilet.I think about this every day before going out to run. I wonder if I could be lacing up for my last workout ... if I will be wrestled to the ground by my paltry HDL level. But I run anyway. Because the alternative--doing nothing--is a far worse choice.Since Friday, I've also been thinking of Salazar on all my runs, praying that he'll have a rapid, complete recovery. I've known him since he was a teenager in MA, and closely followed his astonishing career. He has made so many contributions to American distance running, and inspired so many young runners. He is still a young man himself, and I hope he will live long and healthy. He has so much to give. There is so much we can still learn from him.This week he has taught us something he never intended: to live as intelligently as we can, but also to treasure every day. Because we can't know what tomorrow will bring. We can only live today as fully and honestly as possible.
Full article taken from Runner's World
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