Preparing for marathon after his 70th

He was running a few laps on the indoor track last November and he woke up in a hospital.
Now John Eros, 69, is back in his running shoes and confident that he’ll complete his celebratory birthday marathon footrace.
The Albemarle County resident is readying himself for the Sept. 26 Virginia 10-Mile Race in Lynchburg in preparation for the Rocket City Marathon in Huntsville, Ala., in December.
OK, the marathon isn’t that big of a deal. He’s done a dozen, after all. This will be the first time he’s run the 26 miles, 385 yards after suffering a cardiac incident that stopped his heart while running and required defibrillation and a pacemaker.

Septuagenarian, but can you tell?

It will also be the first marathon he’s run after turning 70.
“Some time ago, I decided that when I turned 70 I’d run a marathon,” Mr. Eros says, sipping a smoothie at ACAC, which serves as his extreme weather training facility. “I’ll be 70 in a couple of weeks and I know I can do the distance. I’ve done 12 marathons, but I haven’t run one for a long time. I’m not that fast, but I’ve beat Oprah Winfrey and I’ve beat Al Gore in the Marine Corps Marathon. Now I just want to finish it.”
The retired National Ground Intelligence Center employee has been working on the run for a while, building up to make the distance, varying from 20 to 60 miles each week. A week ago, he put in an 18-mile run.
The marathon idea has been a motivator for more than a year. In 2008, Mr. Eros joined Weight Watchers and successfully dropped from 195 to 165 pounds. He was cruising toward his goal, running long distances on White Hall Road and Sugar Hollow Road and running the ACAC track on really hot or really cold days, and feeling pretty confident.
And then, one day in November, he lay on the ACAC track with a stopped heart. A club member, who happened to be a cardiac nurse, jolted him with a portable defibrillator.
“I had been a candidate for a [pacemaker] before this happened. I’d been through the stress tests and they were considering whether to do it, and events just sort of overtook that process,” he says.
“I remember getting in a few laps and then I was in a hospital,” he says. “I made a mile and a half when it happened. I didn’t have a near-death experience, or anything. I just woke up in the hospital. They ended up putting a [pacemaker] in. When I asked the doctor if I could run the marathon, he said if you can do it, go ahead. So I did.”

Feet, heart — don’t fail me now

It took a while to get back on his feet. He suffered an internal staph infection after his implant that required daily dose of intravenous antibiotics. By the time he got ready to run, he’d lost some conditioning.
“I only make about 15-minute miles, which is about the same pace as a quick-time march in the military,” he laughs. “I had a guy on a bicycle about my age ride by and ask me how far I walked every day. I don’t call it running anymore, but I still like to think I’m jogging.”
He may not be as fast, but he says he’s fit and ready.
“I think I’ve got two minutes I can take off each mile just because it’s a race. I’ll run Lynchburg and, if I do well, I’ll run the Huntsville marathon,” he said. “Heck, even if I don’t do well, I’ll probably just run it anyway.”