Heart-attack survivor on ride of his life
When Brent Jacinto hit rock bottom, doctors told him he was a candidate for a heart transplant. At age 48, his heart was functioning at less than 10 percent, they said, likely from overwork, stress, being overweight and lack of aerobic exercise.
On Thursday, some 15 years later, Jacinto finished his daily ride on his road bike to make it 18,000 miles since he started to keep track in June last year.
“What a lot of people need, just like I did, is a rehab program for the mind, and then for the body,” Jacinto said. “Yes, you need to back off the work sometimes. It was really hard for me to learn that. It was always ‘push, push, push’ for me. I learned you don’t need to go 100 percent all the time.”
Jacinto, 63, was born in Oakland and graduated from Chabot Community College and Cal. As an educator and coach, he taught in high schools in Cupertino, Union City, Fremont and Patterson, and doubled for a few years at Ohlone College, in science, biology, algebra and special ed. He also coached track, wrestling football and soccer.
“Kids don’t always realize the road to success has many ups and downs, twists and turns,” Jacinto said. “Even a failure can turn you toward the path of happiness and fulfillment. I’ve always wanted them to look at whatever they had to go through, any part of it, as part of their success to becoming an adult. If I meet failure at some point, it is part of the journey. What keeps you in it is realizing, ‘Hey, I can do this.’ ”
Jacinto, in a push with his former wife to put his children through college, started working multiple jobs, including a service business he started that could require wake-up calls at 3 a.m.
“I felt I needed to make the extra buck and I really put myself through the wringer to get it,” Jacinto said. “I remember the night, it was 15 years ago during Christmas break. I had difficulty breathing. I couldn’t get around the block, couldn’t lie down, couldn’t sleep. The next day, I went to the doctor, they put me on the EKG and the nurse thought the machine was malfunctioning. The doctor looked at it and said, ‘You’re having a heart attack’ and they had an ambulance out front.”
Doctors told him that he had congestive heart failure, cardiomyopathy (in which the left ventricle is not operating correctly) and myocarditis (an infection of the heart tissue). When Jacinto responded to medication, they chose not to operate.
“I was in very bad shape for about three months. All I could do was sit in a recliner. I had no strength.”
That down time forced Jacinto to look at his life through a new lens. He realized, as he put it, that he needed to “relearn how to live.”
Jacinto reduced his commitments and work hours, remarried and, with his knees shot and leaving him unable to walk far, rode a bike around the block. That’s how his journey to flourishing again began.
“You start little bit by little bit,” Jacinto said. “Instead of having a drink, have a ride. It’s got to be a choice. The first step to health, you’ve got to own it. When you take ownership of what you do, it makes it easier to make that next step. It might start with riding around the block.”
For years, Jacinto didn’t keep track of his trips or miles. But in the summer of 2015, he joined Strava.com, a Facebook site for cyclists, runners, hikers and swimmers. In the process, he started logging his trips and connecting with like-minded cyclists around the world, occasionally meeting them for rides. Online, he goes by “Snake bit Seventy Nine,” Jacinto said, because he survived a rattlesnake bite in 1979.
Jacinto said he was surprised to find how fast the miles pile up; he’s up to more than 11,000 miles this year alone.
He’s also joined a crusade called “Riding to Fight Kids’ Cancer” through the website, www.GreatCycleChallenge.com. According to sponsors, 26,737 riders have ridden 3.2 million miles and raised more than $3 million.
Jacinto is on his bike virtually every day. His favorite ride in the Bay Area is Redwood Road in the East Bay hills, south from Oakland past several parks in the East Bay Regional Park District.
On Monday, he plans to depart on that route from Oakland and then venture through Union City, Fremont, Milpitas and then up to Mount Hamilton and down the other side through San Antonio Valley and Mines Road. He’s calculated his route at 109 miles with a total climb of about 8,000 feet. He expects it will take about seven hours to complete, “depending on the wind.”
Jacinto is aware of the danger of fast traffic on country two-laners in the foothills, as well as in cities.
“I’m very aware,” Jacinto said. “I anticipate traffic. I’m not the kind of guy who blows through an intersection, even with a green light. I try to stay in bike lanes. I ride routes with good shoulders. I wait if I have to wait.
“I have lights and mirrors on my bike,” he said. “I want to be seen, and to see. It makes my bike heavier, but I’d rather be safer.”
He said riding every day has enriched his life and given him the ability see landscapes that otherwise would remain unknown to him. It also provided an escape from the “work trap.”
“You’ve got to get out of that trap, to push, push, push,” he said. “I’ve been there. What happens with cycling is that it fills the void you leave behind.
“Riding becomes a lifestyle. It doesn’t become a choice anymore. It’s becomes a vital part of life. I have found there are similar stories like mine of recovery through cycling. A lot of people who have been in trouble have found their way on their bikes.”