The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-365 – Steve Hailstone – Heart Attack  (Audio: link) [audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4365.mp3] Link epi4365.mp3 MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/ Hello my friends, this is Chris, your host, and welcome to episode 4-365 of the RunRunLive Podcast.  Today we chat with our friend Steve Hailstone about his experience as a runner having a heart attack.  I wanted to get Steve on and talk through his experience because I thought we might be able to save some lives.  Seriously.  It’s well known that we endurance athletes think that we are indestructible.  This is not the case.  We are typically healthier and fitter over the long arc of our lives but we are still susceptible to the same risks everyone else is, including heart disease.  In section one I talk about how it’s not that much of a leap to go from a marathon to an ultra and give you some thoughts on how to do that.  In section two I talk about how we get into and out of mental slumps.  One of the things about mental slumps, whether you are religious or not, is the concept of will.  You have free will.  You are free to think what you want.  With the free will comes the responsibility to know what it is that you are going to do with that free will.  You’ve been invested with this great gift.  It’s up to you to Use it. It’s been a couple weeks since we last talked.  I believe I was headed into Groton Road Race Weekend last time we talked.  We got a beautiful spring day.  The races went off without a hitch.  Since I was not race director this year I had the choice of either running in the morning at 6:00 AM with the race director’s cut of the race (that I invented 10 years ago!) or actually running the race itself.  The 10k goes off in the early afternoon.  I couldn’t really decide.  Then I had a brain storm that I would just run both!  Of course when I told the other folks in the club this they all rolled their eyes and told me they knew I was going to do both all along.  Since we opted to hold the race on the 30th we were a week or so later in the spring.  It really made a difference.  The course was beautiful.  That extra week allowed the course to green up just enough.  Groton is a really pretty town. Coming out of a strong spring cycle and not really going hard at Boston I was able to perform well in both of my 10K’s.  Maybe I’ll invent a new thing – the Groton Double.  Still I was a bit beat up after doing all that manual work setting up the race and racing twice over the weekend.  Monday I felt a bit like I should have more naps in my life.  I’m a white collar worker and it made me consider that I’m getting soft.  I need more general labor in my life.  After Groton, I wanted to start in with the mountain climbing plan that Teresa and I came up with.  Unfortunately, I didn’t calculate that you can’t really get into the White Mountains of New Hampshire until June.  You can get into them, but only if you’re going to be skiing!  Washington still has 30 feet of snow in Tuckerman’s ravine!  It’s a very dangerous time to hike.  I’ve just been doing a lot of trail running and trying to stay fit.  I’ve been taking Teresa out with me when I can and we signed up for a race this weekend in CT that I will talk more about in the outro.  … One of the books I’m reading is “The Magic of Thinking Big!” By David Swartz.  This is a classic breathless self-help book from 1959.  It’s great.  It’s full of all the old-timey storytelling and phraseology of the era.  It’s basically a self-authored book from this guy’s speeches and programs that went viral in those days.  One of the quaint things he talks about is people who are suffering from ‘excusitis’.  Everyone has an excuse as to why they can’t be successful or live the life they want.  They are too old, or too young, or under-educated, or inexperienced.  He calls this excusitis! He talks