After 10 hours surgery: welcome back Gabino, with a "new" heart

Gabino Toledo's world-class running career was cut short when docs discovered he had a congenital heart defect. He refused surgery and carried on running, still well able to make the rest of us suffer. In fact Gabino was the coach who taught me how to suffer, by the simple expedient of running my hardest workouts alongside or, often, just in front of me :)

It was a standing joke among the athletes training with him that we only had to hang on long enough for his heart rate alarm to go off -- then he would have to back off. Being Gabino, he rarely did.

Time caught up with him and just a few weeks ago his doctors insisted that he have a valve replacement, or he wouldn't be running, or even walking, much longer.

Well the good news is that after ten hours surgery and an excrutiatingly painful recovery period, Gabino is back, better than new. He's already back out coaching his Toledo Runners group. That's bad news for the rest of us. The surgeon told him his valve was down to a fraction of its normal diameter and couldn't quite understand how he'd been able to walk, let alone race. Gabino also told me that the pain he put up with was worse than any marathon or triathlon he's ever won. The pain meds seemed to be rationed according to how high his heart rate went, and the nursing staff didn't get the implication of G starting with a pulse rate of 42. And he has it on good authority from the nurses that the post-op pain is worse than childbirth. So here he is with a new heart AND more practice at suffering: he is going to be unstoppable!

On a technical note, the surgery that doctors offered Gabino ten or more years ago involved cracking his entire chest open; since then a new "microsurgery" technique evolved, which entails two relatively small holes in the chest to take a camera and the surgical instruments. It's obviously much less invasive and cuts the risk of infection. This new option was a major factor in Gabino's decision to finally go for it.

Well, the Bolder Boulder 10k is a tempting few weeks away -- on May 26. And yes, he's thinking about running it.

Welcome back Gabino! We're all looking forward to having you beat us up again :)