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Charles (Chuck) Gividen
Well everyone, I am back. As you have now heard, I was at Lake Tahoe participating in the World Championship Spartan Race. I raced in what was called the “Beast”….15 miles with 37 obstacles to conquer. The race started at 6,000 feet, and went on up to 10,000 feet, and all points in between. I finished the race, received my medal, and then went back to our room. While taking a shower I started feeling some pain in my chest. It kept getting worse and worse. 911 was called, and they rushed me to the Regional Medical Center in Reno….45 miles away. It was a very fast trip. They started working on me right off the bat, and got me stabilized. I was told that I had suffered a “widow maker” heart attack. Sixty percent of my heart was not getting blood. If I had arrived 10 minutes later I would not be here today.
Thank you all for your kind words and prayers sent my way during this unexpected ordeal I have just experienced. This heart attack was totally unexpected. And yes, I am very healthy…I was eating right, working out a lot, and I had a healthy heart. However, I have now found out that due to my genes, as inherited from my ancestors, I am prone to developing plack in my blood vessels. I had no clue. Also, the doctors said that they get quite a few very healthy athletes, young and old who are having heart attacks, because of the high altitude at Lake Tahoe 10,000 feet. The Doctors said that this could have happened to me years ago if I had not been taking care of myself like I have been. The Doctors also said that this heart attack was going to happen no matter what. Now, here is the part that really humbles me and re-affirms my belief in God….I could have had this heart attack while on the mountain, while I was training by hiking up the many trails into the mountains behind our house…alone, or it could have happened while I worked out in our basement…again, alone. But it did not happen that way. It happened after the race at a place where there were a lot of people…the ambulance arrived within 5 minutes…we got to the hospital very rapidly, and I was treated at the Regional Medical Center, where there is a top notch cardio wing. This all happened, not by accident or coincidence, but by design. I firmly believe that God has more for me to do on this earth…I love Him and am grateful for his love.
I am so thankful for friends like all of you. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers in my behalf. I felt their strength. You are part of my family. You have blessed me in so many ways.
Now, I imagine I have a long road ahead of me as I go through this healing process. I am really excited about this. It will be a challenge, but I am looking forward to this challenge.
Oh, before I finish, I might mention that my daughter, who also raced, told me that she had the results of how I placed in the race in my age bracket. Well, of course I wanted to know. She said that I took 1st place. Wow, that was cool…and then I asked her how many raced the “Beast” in my age group. She said, “4”. It made me laugh…there were 9,000 racers total that raced that particular day. Love you guys……
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