‘Better CHD diagnosis could save hundreds of lives every week’
Twenty years and one heart attack since he last ran a competitive race, Gavin Mcmurray is taking to the track again to raise money for the British Heart Foundation in memory of his best friend, Alastair Kennedy, who was just 43 when he died suddenly of coronary heart disease
Ashort story. 13 July, 2013, an Edinburgh born-andbred 49-year-old has a nearfatal heart attack, six years after a heart attack killed his life-long best mate, also from Edinburgh.
This 49-year-old is a speedfreak ex-sprinter, water skier, rugby winger and fast car lover. He’s also done crazy things like cycle across Peru and enter the Men’s Health cover model competition when he was 38 and got to the semi-finals. Close but no cigar; part of life’s great adventure, why the hell not.
Fast forward to 2018. I’m now 54. My dear late friend, Alastair Kennedy, was born three days before me on 5 February, 1964 and was also a sprinter (faster than me) and rugby winger. We went to school together (Currie High), where we both met and eventually married our childhood sweethearts, Lynn Cairns for me, Margaret Blair for Alastair, both becoming life-long partners. We competed in 100m sprints together as team-mates for Harmeny AC, played first 15 rugby on the wing for Currie RFC, Alastair being a “shoo-in” while I was competing hard for a place most weeks. We went on trips together, raised families together and laughed and cried together.
Alastair was cruelly snatched from his family and everyone who loved him by a heart attack on 1 April, 2007. There was no previous diagnosis of any kind of heart condition, despite three full medicals that went with his job at Bank of Scotland. No warnings, no good-byes, gone. Brutal for everyone but especially for Mags and their two wonderful daughters, Rachel and Becky.
When something like that happens, there is not only grief, there is the shock to deal with as well. I’d been on a training cycle with Alastair just the day before, an easy 25-mile jaunt, to help with Alastair’s training for a Macmillan Cancer Relief cycle across Peru, which he was doing in a few weeks with a mutual friend, John Whyte. On the fateful day Alastair and John did a 75-mile route over the Forth Bridge and back over the Kincardine Bridge, through Falkirk, along the canal then back up to Balerno. That was Alastair’s last ride.
Since Alastair’s death I knew I wanted to do something to keep him in people’s thoughts and memories, celebrate his life and raise funds for British Heart Foundation research, so thousands of families could be spared what Alastair’s went through, all because of undiagnosed heart disease that could have been treated had anyone been aware of it.
But what to do? What would be a fitting and worthwhile tribute?
Run a marathon? Everyone’s doing them – I’m not a follower. Climb Kilimanjaro? No thanks. Just because it’s there doesn’t mean you have to climb it. Charity bike ride? Been there, done that – 300 miles across Peru, all at over 10,000ft. And in the worst circumstances; I was only there because my best mate was gone.
So instead, why not…sprint 100 metres. Are you kidding? How lame is that when people are running 26 miles for charity?
OK, factor in endurance cycling for the last 15 years being totally the wrong kind of conditioning for sprinting. Factor in 18 months of hard, seriously hard, training. Functional training to get track fit again. What does that look like?
To run just 100m at the age of 54, 10 years after I last ran flat out and more than 20 years since I last raced, I need to do the following: shed 25lb of fat and put on 10lb of muscle – done – 12st 13lb down to 11st 6lb.
Start with six months of conditioning work in the gym – rebuilding strength and flexibility, key to injury prevention, a frustratingly real factor as your muscles lose both strength and elasticity with age.
Start sprint training again, slowly and steadily increasing the pace and not even think about running flat out for six months.
For a further 12 months, carry on with the gym, physio visits, sprint drills, yoga, stretching, gym, physio, plyometrics, physio, sprint drills, stretching, physio, yoga, gym, gym, gym, sprint, sprint, sprint.
On top of that I needed to become: a nutrition expert; a better sprinter than I was 25 years ago when I ran 100m in under 11.5 seconds; an expert in conditioning for the (much) older athlete; and better at listening to my body – when to push it, when to rest it.
And then factor in being a 54-year-old heart attack survivor pushing myself to the limit. That’s not easy when the body you’d always relied on has let you down once – badly.
Then consider, this is not just any 100 metres – this is the UK Masters Track & Field Championships. Alastair would have loved it – he was always so competitive, and had to win whether it was high stakes or just running for a bus. This is the real deal, real athletes, high stakes. Can I recapture my strength, form and speed? That’s the challenge, the bit that fires me up.
The type of functional training needed for any athletics event is a great way of keeping fit, strong and healthy
The British Masters Athletics Federation (BMAF) run many events as well as the UK champs. Masters Athletics is a great movement – and one that is growing as people seek to continue competitive athletics after the age of 35 – or even start it as new hobby, way of keeping fit, or competitive pursuit. The type of functional training needed for any athletics event is a great way of keeping fit, strong and healthy.
And what of heart attacks in the future? There is real hope.
People like Nick Mills, the cardiologist who fitted my stent after the paramedics and fast response clot-busting team had done their incredible work, is part of a team carrying out research, part-funded by the British Heart Foundation, to find a reliable, cost-effective way of diagnosing at-risk levels of Coronary Heart Disease (CHD).
What I am doing is trying to raise awareness of the need for better CHD diagnosis – this could save hundreds of lives every week. So, Sprint for Life is really two things – the race to start saving lives and a sprint race for a 54-year-old man busting a gut for a good cause, all to stop others suffering the same fate as his best mate.
You can read the full story, including a real-time account of my heart attack, at www. sprintforlife.org.uk
If you wish, you can also make a donation via the website using the link to the Sprint for Life Justgiving page. I, and Alastair’s family, will be eternally grateful and so will thousands of families who will be spared the trauma and tragedy heart attacks bring.
In 2019 I’ll be competing again, this time as one of the younger over 55s rather than one of the older over 50s. But this time I’ll not be alone; plans are afoot to turn Sprint for Life into a mass participation event, where anyone who wants to raise money for Sprint for Life can take part in a fundraising sprint.
Around 12:30pm on Saturday I’ll be in my lane ready for the start at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham. Training injuries have robbed me of some valuable training time and fitness; that was always going to be part of the journey and I really need another year under my belt – hence 2019’s endeavours. But I’ll be looking skyward thinking my own private thoughts about Alastair, his family and my family. And when the starter’s pistol goes off, whatever happens, I’ll run freely and celebrate Alastair’s life with a light heart.
● UK Masters Track & Field Championships, www.bmaf. org.uk; www.sprintforlife. org.uk